Educational Upgrading and Returns to Skills in Latin America: Evidence from a Supply-Demand Framework

22 Pages Posted: 7 Nov 2017

See all articles by Pablo Acosta

Pablo Acosta

World Bank

Sebastian Galiani

University of Maryland - Department of Economics

Guillermo Cruces

Universidad Nacional de La Plata - Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS); IZA

Leonardo Gasparini

Universidad Nacional de La Plata - Faculty of Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 4, 2017

Abstract

This paper documents the evolution of wage differentials and the supply of workers by educational level for sixteen Latin American countries over the period 1991-2013. We find a pattern of rather constant rise in the relative supply of skilled and semi-skilled workers over the period. Whereas the returns to secondary education fell over time, in contrast, the returns to tertiary education display a remarkable changing pattern common to almost all economies: significant increase in the 1990s, strong fall in the 2000s and a deceleration of that fall in the 2010s. We conclude that supply-side factors seem to have limited explanatory power relative to demand-side factors in accounting for changes in the wage gap between workers with tertiary education and the rest.

Keywords: Returns to skills, Latin America

JEL Classification: J01

Suggested Citation

Acosta, Pablo and Galiani, Sebastian and Cruces, Guillermo and Gasparini, Leonardo, Educational Upgrading and Returns to Skills in Latin America: Evidence from a Supply-Demand Framework (November 4, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3065208 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3065208

Pablo Acosta

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Sebastian Galiani (Contact Author)

University of Maryland - Department of Economics ( email )

College Park, MD 20742
United States

Guillermo Cruces

Universidad Nacional de La Plata - Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) ( email )

Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y
Sociales, Calle 6 e/47 y 48
La Plata, Provincia de Buenos Aires 1900
Argentina

HOME PAGE: http://cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar

IZA

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

Leonardo Gasparini

Universidad Nacional de La Plata - Faculty of Economics ( email )

1900 La Plata
Argentina

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