IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/53164.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Return to Investment in Human Capital: The Case of the Value of Educational Attainment beyond the High School Diploma in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Si, Xiaojing
  • Foley, Maggie
  • Boylan, Robert
  • Cebula, Richard

Abstract

Based on 2001 Canadian Census data, we investigate the return to investment in human capital in Canada. Internal rates of return (IRR) imply that the value of education varies by gender, level of education, and field of study. A bachelor's degree yields the highest IRR; the IRR from higher levels of education declines beyond the bachelor's degree. Women derive higher benefits from education than men. Finally, a bachelor's degree in engineering yields the highest IRR, followed by one in business/commerce and then by one in humanities.

Suggested Citation

  • Si, Xiaojing & Foley, Maggie & Boylan, Robert & Cebula, Richard, 2011. "The Return to Investment in Human Capital: The Case of the Value of Educational Attainment beyond the High School Diploma in Canada," MPRA Paper 53164, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:53164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/53164/1/MPRA_paper_53164.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Cebula, Richard & Lopes, Jerry, 1981. "Determinants of Student Choice of Undergraduate Major Field," MPRA Paper 49826, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Feb 1982.
    3. David A. Dodge & David A. A. Stager, 1972. "Economic Returns to Graduate Study in Science, Engineering and Business," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 5(2), pages 182-198, May.
    4. Francois Vaillancourt, 1995. "The Private and Total Returns to Education in Canada, 1985," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 28(3), pages 532-554, August.
    5. Berger, Mark C., 1988. "Cohort size effects on earnings: Differences by college major," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 375-383, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. John B. Burbidge & Kirk A. Collins & James B. Davies & Lonnie Magee, 2012. "Effective tax and subsidy rates on human capital in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(1), pages 189-219, February.
    2. Nohora Y. Forero Ramírez & Manuel Ramírez Gómez, 2008. "Determinantes de los ingresos laborales de los graduados universitarios durante el período 2001-2004," Documentos de Trabajo 4591, Universidad del Rosario.
    3. Nohora Y. Forero Ramírez & Manuel Ramírez Gómez, 2008. "Determinantes de los ingresos laborales de los graduados universitarios en Colombia: un análisis a partir de la Herramienta de Seguimiento a Graduados," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, June.
    4. Boudarbat, Brahim, 2004. "Earnings and Community College Field of Study Choice in Canada," IZA Discussion Papers 1156, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Kawai, Eizo, 2001. "Re-examination of wage, employment, and hours adjustments: what is crucial for differences in the adjustments?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 483-497, December.
    6. Jeremy T. Fox, 2010. "Estimating the Employer Switching Costs and Wage Responses of Forward-Looking Engineers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 357-412, April.
    7. Roxana Elena Manea, 2021. "School Feeding Programmes, Education and Food Security in Rural Malawi," CIES Research Paper series 63-2020, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    8. Fischer, Barbara & Telser, Harry & Zweifel, Peter & von Wyl, Viktor & Beck, Konstantin & Weber, Andreas, 2023. "The value of a QALY towards the end of life and its determinants: Experimental evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    9. Giorgio Vittadini & Giuseppe Folloni & Caterina Sturaro, 2022. "The Development of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills in Students in the Autonomous Province of Trento," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    10. Maïlys Korber, 2019. "Does Vocational Education Give a Labour Market Advantage over the Whole Career? A Comparison of the United Kingdom and Switzerland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 202-223.
    11. Duniesky Feitó Madrigal & Alejandro Mungaray Lagarda & Michelle Texis Flores, 2016. "Factors associated with learning management in Mexican micro-entrepreneurs," Estudios Gerenciales, Universidad Icesi, vol. 32(141), pages 381-386, December.
    12. Pasquale Lucio Scandizzo & Maria Rita Pierleoni, 2018. "Assessing The Olympic Games: The Economic Impact And Beyond," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 649-682, July.
    13. Benson, Rebecca & von Hippel, Paul T. & Lynch, Jamie L., 2018. "Does more education cause lower BMI, or do lower-BMI individuals become more educated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 370-377.
    14. Maria Kravtsova & Aleksey Oshchepkov, 2019. "Market And Network Corruption," HSE Working papers WP BRP 209/EC/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    15. Uwe Sunde & Thomas Dohmen & Benjamin Enke & Armin Falkbriq & David Huffman & Gerrit Meyerheim, 2022. "Patience and Comparative Development," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(5), pages 2806-2840.
    16. Amit Basole, 2014. "Informality and Flexible Specialization: Labour Supply, Wages, and Knowledge Flows in an Indian Artisanal Cluster," Working Papers 2014_07, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    17. Falch, Ranveig, 2021. "How Do People Trade Off Resources Between Quick and Slow Learners?," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 5/2021, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    18. Grund, Christian & Sliwka, Dirk, 2001. "The Impact of Wage Increases on Job Satisfaction - Empirical Evidence and Theoretical Implications," IZA Discussion Papers 387, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1996. "Nobel Lecture: Monetary Neutrality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 661-682, August.
    20. Teixeira, Aurora A.C. & Tavares-Lehmann, Ana Teresa, 2014. "Human capital intensity in technology-based firms located in Portugal: Does foreign ownership matter?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 737-748.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic education; investment in human capital; internal rates of return;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate
    • A23 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Graduate
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pra:mprapa:53164. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.