IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/acb/cbeeco/2009-510.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Nonparametric Bounds on Returns to Education in South Africa: Overcoming Ability and Selection Bias

Author

Listed:
  • Martine Mariotti
  • Juergen Meinecke

Abstract

Our objective is to estimate the average treatment effect (ATE) of education on earnings for African men in South Africa. Estimation of the ATE in our data is difficult because of omitted ability bias and a high degree of sample selection due to low labor force participation. Manski and Pepper (2000) suggest is a promising nonparametric identification strategy but it only helps with the problem of omitted ability bias. We propose an extension of their identification strategy to deal with the sample selection problem. Accounting for ability and selection bias, we compute upper bounds on the ATE for the years 1995 and 2000. We estimate an upper bound of 12.64 percent in 1995 and 10.68 percent in 2000. Compared to parametric estimation our bounds are informative: The OLS returns to schooling equal 15.59 percent in 1995 and 15.31 percent in 2000. Our results suggest that many parametric estimates are severely upwards biased, which results from unobserved heterogeneity.

Suggested Citation

  • Martine Mariotti & Juergen Meinecke, 2009. "Nonparametric Bounds on Returns to Education in South Africa: Overcoming Ability and Selection Bias," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2009-510, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2009-510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/econ/wp510.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Farshid Vahid & Pushkar Maitra, 2006. "The effect of household characteristics on living standards in South Africa 1993-1998: a quantile regression analysis with sample attrition," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 999-1018.
    2. Victoria Hosegood & Anne Case & Cally Ardington, 2009. "Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 22-48, January.
    3. Richard Blundell & Amanda Gosling & Hidehiko Ichimura & Costas Meghir, 2007. "Changes in the Distribution of Male and Female Wages Accounting for Employment Composition Using Bounds," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(2), pages 323-363, March.
    4. Mwabu, Germano & Schultz, T Paul, 2000. "Wage Premiums for Education and Location of South African Workers, by Gender and Race," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 307-334, January.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan & Douglas Miller, 2003. "Public Policy and Extended Families: Evidence from Pensions in South Africa," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 17(1), pages 27-50, June.
    6. Charles F. Manski, 1997. "Monotone Treatment Response," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(6), pages 1311-1334, November.
    7. Dieter von Fintel, "undated". "Monitoring South Africa’s metropolitan economies: A survey of the data landscape," Working Papers 13, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    8. Mwabu, Germano & Schultz, T Paul, 1996. "Education Returns across Quantiles of the Wage Function: Alternative Explanations for Returns to Education by Race in South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 335-339, May.
    9. Elizabeth Kasekende & John P. Dunne, 2016. "Financial Innovation and Money Demand in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 59, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    10. Thomas, Duncan, 1996. "Education across Generations in South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 330-334, May.
    11. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Philip AE Serumaga-Zake & Willem Naude, 2003. "Private rates of return to education of Africans in South Africa for 1995: a Double Hurdle model," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 515-528.
    13. repec:pri:cheawb:case_ardington_hosegood_nber_w13442_oct07 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 1999. "School Inputs and Educational Outcomes in South Africa," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 1047-1084.
    15. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, March.
    16. Case, Anne & Deaton, Angus, 1998. "Large Cash Transfers to the Elderly in South Africa," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(450), pages 1330-1361, September.
    17. Farshid Vahid & Pushkar Maitra, 2005. "The Effect of Household Characteristics on Living Standards in South Africa 1993 - 98: A Quantile Regression Analysis with Sample Attrition," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2005-452, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    18. Murray Leibbrandt & James Levinsohn & Justin McCrary, 2005. "Incomes in South Africa Since the Fall of Apartheid," NBER Working Papers 11384, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Julian May & Michael Carter & Lawrence Haddad & John Maluccio, 2000. "KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) 1993-98: A longitudinal household database for South African policy analysis," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 567-581.
    20. Deolalikar, Anil B & Evenson, Robert E, 1989. "Technology Production and Technology Purchase in Indian Industry: An Econometric Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(4), pages 689-692, November.
    21. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_ardington_hosegood_nber_w13442_oct07 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Charles F. Manski & John V. Pepper, 2000. "Monotone Instrumental Variables, with an Application to the Returns to Schooling," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(4), pages 997-1012, July.
    23. repec:pri:cheawb:case_ardington_hosegood_nber_w13442_oct07.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Doubell Chamberlain & Servaas van der Berg, 2002. "Earnings functions, labour market discrimination and quality of education in South Africa," Working Papers 02/2002, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    25. Martine Mariotti, 2012. "Labour markets during apartheid in South Africa," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(3), pages 1100-1122, August.
    26. Malcolm Keswell & Laura Poswell, 2004. "Returns To Education In South Africa: A Retrospective Sensitivity Analysis Of The Available Evidence," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(4), pages 834-860, September.
    27. Keane, Michael P & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1997. "The Career Decisions of Young Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(3), pages 473-522, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Farshid Vahid & Pushkar Maitra, 2005. "The Effect of Household Characteristics on Living Standards in South Africa 1993 - 98: A Quantile Regression Analysis with Sample Attrition," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2005-452, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    2. Sonia Bhalotra & Claudia Sanhueza, 2004. "Parametric and Semi-parametric Estimations of the Return to Schooling in South Africa," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 294, Econometric Society.
    3. Victoria Hosegood & Anne Case & Cally Ardington, 2009. "Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 22-48, January.
    4. Nikolov, Plamen & Jimi, Nusrat & Chang, Jerray, 2020. "The Importance of Cognitive Domains and the Returns to Schooling in South Africa: Evidence from Two Labor Surveys," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Tushar Agrawal, 2011. "Returns to education in India: Some recent evidence," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2011-017, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    6. Sungwon Lee, 2021. "Partial Identification and Inference for Conditional Distributions of Treatment Effects," Papers 2108.00723, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    7. Anuneeta Mitra, 2016. "Education and earning linkages of regular and casual workers in India: a quantile regression approach," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 18(1), pages 147-174, October.
    8. Mwangi S. Kimenyi & Germano Mwabu & Damiano Kulundu Manda, 2006. "Human Capital Externalities and Private Returns to Education in Kenya," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 493-513, Summer.
    9. Salisbury, Taylor, 2016. "Education and inequality in South Africa: Returns to schooling in the post-apartheid era," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 43-52.
    10. Sungwon Lee, 2024. "Partial identification and inference for conditional distributions of treatment effects," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(1), pages 107-127, January.
    11. Servaas VAN DER BERG & Onelle BURGER, 2003. "Education And Socio‐Economic Differentials: A Study Of School Performance In The Western Cape," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 71(3), pages 496-522, September.
    12. Dabalen,Andrew L. & Kilic,Talip & Wane,Waly & Dabalen,Andrew L. & Kilic,Talip & Wane,Waly, 2008. "Social transfers, labor supply and poverty reduction : the case of Albania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4783, The World Bank.
    13. Meghir, Costas & Rivkin, Steven, 2011. "Econometric Methods for Research in Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 1, pages 1-87, Elsevier.
    14. Katy Cornwell & Brett Inder & Pushkar Maitra & Anu Rammohan, 2005. "Household Composition and Schooling of Rural South African Children: Sibling Synergy and Migrant Effects," Monash Economics Working Papers 22/05, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    15. Daniela Casale, 2004. "What has the Feminisation of the Labour Market ‘Bought’ Women in South Africa? Trends in Labour Force Participation, Employment and Earnings, 1995-2001," Working Papers 04084, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    16. S Madheswaran, 2016. "The Changing Rates of Return to Education in India: Evidence from NSS Data," Working Papers id:11324, eSocialSciences.
    17. Pushkar Maitra & Farshid Vahid, 2006. "The effect of household characteristics on living standards in South Africa 1993–1998: a quantile regression analysis with sample attrition," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 999-1018, November.
    18. Singhari, Smrutirekha & Madheswaran, S., 2016. "Changing rates of return to education in India: Evidence from NSS data," Working Papers 358, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    19. Jacqueline Mosomi, 2019. "Distributional changes in the gender wage gap in the post-apartheid South African labour market," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-17, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Hamoudi, Amar & Thomas, Duncan, 2014. "Endogenous coresidence and program incidence: South Africa's Old Age Pension," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 30-37.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2009-510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feanuau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.