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Returns to University Education: Evidence from a Dutch Institutional Reform
Author(s) -
WEBBINK DINAND
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
economica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.532
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1468-0335
pISSN - 0013-0427
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0335.2006.00534.x
Subject(s) - differential (mechanical device) , demographic economics , university education , economics , differential effects , duration (music) , higher education , labour economics , difference in differences , political science , economic growth , medicine , econometrics , art , literature , engineering , aerospace engineering
In 1982 the duration of university education in the Netherlands was reduced from five to four years. This institutional reform is here used to estimate the causal effect of one year of university education on wages. I find that the fifth year of university education increased wages by 7%–9%. This differential is found by comparing wages of cohorts of graduates enrolling five years before and five years after the reform in a difference‐in‐differences approach.