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Corporate Job Ladders in Europe: Wage Premia for University vs. High School Level Positions

Author

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  • Mellander, Erik

    (The Research Institute of Industrial Economics)

  • Skedinger, Per

    (The Research Institute of Industrial Economics)

Abstract

Investment in human capital is a central issue in the literature on economic growth. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the economic incentives for investment in university education across countries. An empirical investigation of earnings for private-sector engineers and business administrators in seven European countries - Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom - is presented. The analysis is based on a large micro-data set that is ideally suited for international comparisons. It contains information on earnings, age, occupation, responsibility level, industry and firm size. Standardized wage premia for university vs. high school level positions are computed for each country and field of work. The results indicate that the wage premia are higher for business administrators than for engineers in all the countries considered and that the premia for engineers are remarkably similar across countries. Aggregation over fields of work, which is not uncommon in studies on the returns to education, therefore seems to be questionable practice when comparing the returns in different countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Mellander, Erik & Skedinger, Per, 1998. "Corporate Job Ladders in Europe: Wage Premia for University vs. High School Level Positions," Working Paper Series 495, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 25 Aug 1999.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0495
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Brown, Charles & Medoff, James, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1027-1059, October.
    2. W. Lee Hansen, 1970. "Education, Income, and Human Capital," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hans70-1, March.
    3. Zvi Griliches, 1970. "Notes on the Role of Education in Production Functions and Growth Accounting," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Income, and Human Capital, pages 71-127, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gunnarsson, Gudmundur & Mellander, Erik & Savvidou, Eleni, 2004. "Human capital is the key to the IT productivity paradox," Working Paper Series 2004:13, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    2. Mellander, Erik & Savvidiou, Eleni & Gunnarsson, Gudmundur, 2001. "Is Human Capital the Key to the IT Productivity Paradox?," Working Paper Series 551, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    3. Mellander, Erik, 2014. "Transparency of human resource policy," Working Paper Series 2014:24, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    4. Braconier, Henrik & Norback, Pehr-Johan & Urban, Dieter, 2005. "Multinational enterprises and wage costs: vertical FDI revisited," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 446-470, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Returns to education; Company wage policies;

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

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