Private Wage Returns to Schooling in Nigeria: 1996-1999
35 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2002
Date Written: October 2002
Abstract
In the last two decades, primary and secondary school enrollment rates have declined in Nigeria while enrollment rates in post-secondary school have increased. This paper estimates from the General Household Survey for Nigeria the private returns to schooling associated with levels of educational attainment for wage and self-employed workers. The estimates for both men and women are small at primary and secondary levels, 2 to 4 percent, but are substantial at post-secondary education level, 10-15 percent. These schooling return estimates may account for the recent trends in enrollments. Thus, increasing public investment to encourage increased attendance in basic education is not justifiable on grounds of private efficiency, unless investments to increase school quality have higher private returns. With high private returns to post-secondary schooling, students at this level should pay tuition, to recoup more of the public costs of schooling, which may be redistributed to poor families through scholarships.
Keywords: Schooling Investment, Private Wage Returns, Efficiency, Equity, Nigeria
JEL Classification: O15, I12, J24
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
How Large are the Social Returns to Education? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws
By Daron Acemoglu and Joshua D. Angrist
-
Growth Effects of Education and Social Capital in the OECD Countries
-
Education for Growth in Sweden and the World
By Alan B. Krueger and Mikael Lindahl
-
Education for Growth in Sweden and the World
By Alan B. Krueger and Mikael Lindahl
-
Redistribution Through Education and Other Transfer Mechanisms
By Eric A. Hanushek, Charles Ka Yui Leung, ...
-
Specifying Human Capital: A Review, Some Extensions, and Development Effects