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Quality of Higher Education and the Labor Market in Developing Countries: Evidence from an Education Reform in Senegal

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  • Boccanfuso, Dorothée

    (University of Sherbrooke)

  • Larouche, Alexandre

    (Del Degan, Massé)

  • Trandafir, Mircea

    (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit)

Abstract

While many studies examine the effect of primary education quality on labor market outcomes in developing countries, little is known about the effects at higher levels. We exploit the quasi-experiment provided by a large-scale education reform launched in Senegal in 2000 to investigate how quality improvements at the university level affect employment. Our difference-in-difference estimates suggest that young high-skilled workers experienced a nine percentage-point employment gain relative to older workers. They are also more likely to have "better" jobs (in the service industry or government), suggesting a reduction in the mismatch between the quality of high-skill labor demanded and supplied.

Suggested Citation

  • Boccanfuso, Dorothée & Larouche, Alexandre & Trandafir, Mircea, 2015. "Quality of Higher Education and the Labor Market in Developing Countries: Evidence from an Education Reform in Senegal," IZA Discussion Papers 9099, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9099
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    2. Dalibor Gottwald & Libor Švadlenka & Hana Pavlisová, 2016. "Human Capital and Growth of E-postal Services: A cross-country Analysis in Developing Countries," Post-Print hal-01307145, HAL.
    3. Mussida, Chiara & Sciulli, Dario & Signorelli, Marcello, 2019. "Secondary school dropout and work outcomes in ten developing countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 547-567.
    4. Nooripoor, Mehdi & Sharifi, Zeinab, 2020. "Assessment of the Quality of Academic Services at Yasouj University: Application of SERVQUAL Model," International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development (IJAMAD), Iranian Association of Agricultural Economics, vol. 10(4), December.
    5. Tajammal Hussain & Jacob Eskildsen & Rick Edgeman & Muhammad Ismail & Alaa Mohamd Shoukry & Showkat Gani, 2019. "Imperatives of Sustainable University Excellence: A Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Muhammad Ali Asadullah, 2019. "Quadratic Indirect Effect of National TVET Expenditure on Economic Growth Through Social Inclusion Indicators," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, March.
    7. Bacalhau, Priscilla & Mattos, Enlinson & Ponczek, Vladimir Pinheiro, 2019. "College quality signaling and individual performance: effects on labor market outcomes after graduation," Textos para discussão 502, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    8. Lucía Mateos-Romero & María del Mar Salinas-Jiménez, 2018. "Labor Mismatches: Effects on Wages and on Job Satisfaction in 17 OECD Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 369-391, November.
    9. Lidia Alexa & Veronica Maier & Anca Șerban & Razvan Craciunescu, 2020. "Engineers Changing the World: Education for Sustainability in Romanian Technical Universities—An Empirical Web-Based Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-20, March.
    10. Asmus Zoch, 2017. "The effect of neighbourhoods and school quality on education and labour market outcomes in South Africa," Working Papers 08/2017, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    11. Chiara Mussida & Dario Sciulli & Marcello Signorelli, 2016. "Early School Leaving and Work Outcomes in Developing Countries," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 26/2016, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    12. Hazal Colak Oz & Çiçek Güven & Gonzalo Nápoles, 2023. "School dropout prediction and feature importance exploration in Malawi using household panel data: machine learning approach," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 245-287, April.
    13. Aftab Ahmed Memon & Zhimin Liu, 2019. "Assessment of Sustainable Development of the Performance of Higher Education Credentials in the Transitive Labor Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-14, May.
    14. Jarrín-V, Pablo & Falconí, Fander & Cango, Pedro & Ramos-Martin, Jesus, 2021. "Knowledge gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean and economic development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    15. Markéta Šeligová & Ivana Koštuříková, 2021. "Knowledge of Basic Accounting Issues of SBA Students and their View on the Qualification Level of Professional Accountants," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2021(1), pages 25-44.
    16. Gabriel Bratucu & Alexandra Palade (Zamfirache) & Anca Madar & Nicoleta Andreea Neacsu, 2017. "Competition on the University Educational Services Market in Romania and the Protection of Students’ Rights and Interests," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(45), pages 414-414, May.
    17. Dursun, Bahadır & Cesur, Resul & Mocan, Naci, 2018. "The Impact of Education on Health Outcomes and Behaviors in a Middle-Income, Low-Education Country," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 94-114.
    18. Chen, Shuang, 2018. "Education and transition to work: Evidence from Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 92-105.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    higher education; employment; impact analysis; quality mismatch;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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