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Instrument Choice and the Returns to Education: New Evidence from Vietnam

Author

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  • Jean-Louis ARCAND
  • Béatrice D'HOMBRES

    (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International(CERDI))

  • Paul GYSELINCK

Abstract

This paper focuses on instrument choice while consistently estimating the returns to education in Vietnam. Using data culled from the 2 rounds of the Vietnam Living Standards Survey (VLSS), we explore different sets of exogenous instruments that rely on demand and supply side sources of variation in schooling as well as the matrix of instruments proposed by Hausman and Taylor (1981). Instrument validity tests suggest that many variables do not satisfy the necessary conditions allowing them to be used as instruments. As in several studies, we find that IV estimates of the returns to education are substantially higher than the corresponding OLS estimate. We show how the Hausman-Taylor matrix of instruments, when combined with other instruments, may be a useful way of consistently estimating an average return to education rather than a local average treatment effect (Angrist, 1994).

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Louis ARCAND & Béatrice D'HOMBRES & Paul GYSELINCK, 2004. "Instrument Choice and the Returns to Education: New Evidence from Vietnam," Working Papers 200422, CERDI.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdi:wpaper:633
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    2. Dang, Thang, 2017. "Education as Protection? The Effect of Schooling on Non-Wage Compensation in a Developing Country," MPRA Paper 79223, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Arabsheibani, Reza & Staneva, Anita, 2012. "Returns to Education in Russia: Where There Is Risky Sexual Behaviour There Is Also an Instrument," IZA Discussion Papers 6726, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Balestra, Simone & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2017. "Heterogeneous returns to education over the wage distribution: Who profits the most?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 89-105.
    5. Daeheon Choi & Chune Young Chung & Ha Truong, 2019. "Return on Education in Two Major Vietnamese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-30, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Instrumental variables procedures; Instrument choice; Hausman-Taylor estimator; Hahn-Hausman test; Returns to education; Vietnam;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • C30 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - General

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