Educational Upgrading and Returns to Skills in Latin America: Evidence from a Supply-Demand Framework
22 Pages Posted: 7 Nov 2017
There are 3 versions of this paper
Educational Upgrading and Returns to Skills in Latin America: Evidence from a Supply-Demand Framework
Educational Upgrading and Returns to Skills in Latin America: Evidence from a Supply-Demand Framework, 1990-2010
Educational Upgrading and Returns to Skills in Latin America: Evidence from a Supply-Demand Framework, 1990-2010
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: Suggested Citation