IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soueco/v9y2008i2p435-462.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Mincer Human Capital Model in Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Qaisar Abbas
  • James Foreman-Peck

Abstract

This article estimates and interprets returns to education for three sub–sectors of the labour market, by gender, in Pakistan, using the most recent data set of the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey, 2004–05. The results show two distinctive features of Pakistani education: the high apparent returns to female education outside agriculture and the remarkable increase of returns with successive levels of education, which are to be explained primarily by two departures from the basic Mincer model—generally poor quality primary schooling and family unwillingness to invest in female education because of a lack of earning opportunities. There is some signalling in Pakistani education investment, but the education is mainly a productivity–enhancing investment in human capital, according to a comparison of self–employed and paid employed earnings equations. Returns to the public spending of education are extremely high, suggesting considerable state underinvestment. The policy challenge is in the low wages and high education in the female paid employment sector, and the low participation rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Qaisar Abbas & James Foreman-Peck, 2008. "The Mincer Human Capital Model in Pakistan," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 9(2), pages 435-462, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:9:y:2008:i:2:p:435-462
    DOI: 10.1177/139156140800900209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/139156140800900209
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/139156140800900209?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B, 1995. "Are There Differential Returns to Schooling by Gender? The Case of Indonesian Labour Markets," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(1), pages 97-117, February.
    2. Christian Belzil & Jörgen Hansen, 2002. "Unobserved Ability and the Return to Schooling," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(5), pages 2075-2091, September.
    3. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon & Jeemol Unni, 2001. "Education and Women's Labour Market Outcomes in India," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 173-195.
    4. Colm Harmon & Hessel Oosterbeek & Ian Walker, 2003. "The Returns to Education: Microeconomics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 115-156, April.
    5. Thomas Hertz, 2003. "Upward Bias in the Estimated Returns to Education: Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1354-1368, September.
    6. Jacob Mincer, 1958. "Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(4), pages 281-281.
    7. M. Arrazola & J. De Hevia & M. Risueno & J. F. Sanz, 2003. "Returns to education in Spain: Some evidence on the endogeneity of schooling," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 293-304.
    8. Sherwin Rosen, 1992. "Distinguished Fellow: Mincering Labor Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 157-170, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abeer Mohamed Ali Abd Elkhalek, 2021. "Education for Sustainable Development: A Critical Analyses," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(6), pages 181-181, June.
    2. Nasir Iqbal & Musleh Ud Din & Ejaz Ghani, 2012. "Fiscal Decentralisation and Economic Growth: Role of Democratic Institutions," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 51(3), pages 173-195.
    3. Sajjad Haider Bhatti & Muhammad Aslam & Jean Bourdon, 2018. "Market Returns to Education in Pakistan, Corrected for Endogeneity Bias," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 79-96, Jan-June.
    4. Günther Fink & Evan Peet, 2016. "Returns to Education in Low and Middle-Income Countries: Evidence from the Living Standards and Measurement Surveys," PGDA Working Papers 12014, Program on the Global Demography of Aging.
    5. Aamir Khan & Himayatullah Khan, 2020. "Return to Schooling for Public and Private Sector Higher Education Institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(4), pages 125-131.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abbas, Qaisar & Foreman-Peck, James, 2007. "The Mincer Human Capital Model in Pakistan: Implications for Education Policy," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2007/24, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    2. Monazza Aslam, 2009. "Education Gender Gaps in Pakistan: Is the Labor Market to Blame?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(4), pages 747-784, July.
    3. Monazza Aslam, 2006. "Rates of Return to Education by Gender in Pakistan," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-064, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Rahman, Mustafizur & Al-Hasan, Md., 2018. "Returns to Schooling in Bangladesh Revisited: An Instrumental Variable Quantile Regression Approach," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 41(02), pages 27-42, June.
    5. Mustafizur Rahman & Marzuka Md. Al-Hasan, 2019. "Women in Bangladesh Labour Market: Determinants of Participation, Gender Wage Gap and Returns to Schooling," CPD Working Paper 124, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    6. Denis Maguain, 2007. "Les rendements de l'éducation en comparaison internationale," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 180(4), pages 87-106.
    7. Bhuller, Manudeep & Mogstad, Magne & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2011. "Life-Cycle Bias and the Returns to Schooling in Current and Lifetime Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 5788, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Tan, Clifford, 2013. "The contribution of university rankings to country's GDP per capita," MPRA Paper 53900, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Harry A Patrinos, 2022. "Returns to Education in Greece: Evidence from the 1977 Labor Market Survey using the Greek Civil War as an Instrument," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(1), pages 288-293.
    10. Ivar Kolstad & Arne Wiig, 2015. "Education and entrepreneurial success," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 783-796, April.
    11. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2010. "Chicago and the Development of Twentieth-Century Labor Economics," Chapters, in: Ross B. Emmett (ed.), The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Barry R. Chiswick, 2006. "Jacob Mincer, Experience and the Distribution of Earnings," Springer Books, in: Shoshana Grossbard (ed.), Jacob Mincer A Pioneer of Modern Labor Economics, chapter 10, pages 109-126, Springer.
    13. Michael A. Clemens, 2004. "The Long Walk to School: International education goals in historical perspective," Development and Comp Systems 0403007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Claudio E. Montenegro & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2014. "Comparable Estimates of Returns to Schooling Around the World," Working Papers wp390, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    15. Romano, Richard E. & Tampieri, Alessandro, 2016. "Arts vs engineering: Choosing consumption of and investment in education," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 493-510.
    16. Belzil, Christian, 2007. "The return to schooling in structural dynamic models: a survey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1059-1105, July.
    17. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro & Rosés, Joan R., 2010. "Human capital and economic growth in Spain, 1850-2000," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 520-532, October.
    18. Tansel, Aysit, 2002. "Determinants of school attainment of boys and girls in Turkey: individual, household and community factors," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 455-470, October.
    19. Klaus Waelde, 1996. "Lifetime learning, biased technological change and the evolution of wages in the U.S. 1960 - 1990," Labor and Demography 9601001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Growiec, Jakub, 2010. "Human Capital, Aggregation, And Growth," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 189-211, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:9:y:2008:i:2:p:435-462. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ips.lk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.