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Fluctuations in the wage gap between vocational and general secondary education: lessons from Portugal

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  • Hartog, Joop
  • Raposo, Pedro S.
  • Reis, Hugo

Abstract

We document and analyse the wage gap between vocational and general secondary education in Portugal between 1994 and 2013. As Portuguese workers have been educated in different school systems, we have to distinguish birth cohorts. Analysing the wage gaps within cohorts, we find no support for the human capital prediction of crossing wage profiles and no support either for the hypothesis that general graduates increasingly outperform vocational graduates in late career. We discover that the lifecycle wage profiles have shifted over time. We link the pattern of shifting cohort profiles to changes in the school system and in the structure of labour demand. We conclude that assessing the relative value of vocational education requires to assess how the vocational curriculum responds to changes in economic structure and technology. We show that the decline in assortative matching between workers and firms has benefitted vocationally educated workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Hartog, Joop & Raposo, Pedro S. & Reis, Hugo, 2021. "Fluctuations in the wage gap between vocational and general secondary education: lessons from Portugal," GLO Discussion Paper Series 769, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:769
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    Cited by:

    1. Yue Chen & Yuantao Jiang & Aibing Zheng & Yunzhu Yue & Zhi-Hua Hu, 2023. "What Research Should Vocational Education Colleges Conduct? An Empirical Study Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-18, June.
    2. Dai, Li & Martins, Pedro S., 2024. "The Wage Effects of Polytechnic Degrees: Evidence from the 1999 China Higher Education Expansion," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1399, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Irene Kriesi & Fabian Sander, 2024. "Academic or vocational education? A comparison of the long-term wage development of academic and vocational tertiary degree holders," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 58(1), pages 1-28, December.
    4. Joop Hartog & Pedro Raposo & Hugo Reis, 2022. "Fluctuations in the wage gap between vocational and general secondary education: lessons from Portugal," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(2), pages 643-675, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    returns to education; vocational wage gap; worker-firm allocation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education

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