Cohort Effects and the Returns to Education in West Germany

29 Pages Posted: 9 Nov 2003

See all articles by Bernhard Boockmann

Bernhard Boockmann

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research; Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Viktor Steiner

Zentrum Fuer Europaeische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) - Center for European Economic Research; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: 2000

Abstract

Using a Mincer-type wage function, we estimate cohort effects in the returns to education for West German workers born between 1925 and 1974. The main problem to be tackled in the specification is to separately identify cohort, experience, and possibly also age effects in the returns. For women, we find a large and robust decline in schooling premia: in the private sector, the returns to a further year of post-compulsory education fell from twelve per cent for the 1945-49 cohort to about seven per cent for those born in the early 1970s. Cohort effects in men's returns to education are less obvious, but we do find evidence that they, too, have declined. We conclude by identifying possible reasons for the decline.

Keywords: returns to education, cohort effects, population ageing

JEL Classification: J31

Suggested Citation

Boockmann, Bernhard and Steiner, Viktor, Cohort Effects and the Returns to Education in West Germany (2000). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=373363 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.373363

Bernhard Boockmann (Contact Author)

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
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Germany
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+621 1235 225 (Fax)

Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW) ( email )

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Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.iaw.edu

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Viktor Steiner

Zentrum Fuer Europaeische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) - Center for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1 D-68161 Mannheim
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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