Reaching High: Occupational Sorting and Higher Education Wage Inequality in the UK
Abstract
We analyse wage differentials between Higher Education graduates in the UK, differentiating between polytechnic and university graduates. Polytechnic graduates earned on average lower wages than university graduates prior to the UK Further and Higher Education Act of 1992. The reform changed the system of Higher Education by giving all polytechnics university status. We show that wage differentials can be explained by a glass ceiling which prevented polytechnic graduates from reaching managerial and professional occupations. After the reform, they overtook graduates of traditional universities in terms of average wages.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen in its series Ruhr Economic Papers with number 0377.Length: 19 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:rwi:repape:0377
Contact details of provider:
Postal: Hohenzollernstraße 1-3, 45128 Essen
Phone: (0201)8149-0
Fax: (0201)8149-200
Email:
Web page: http://www.rwi-essen.de/
More information through EDIRC
Order Information:
Web: http://www.rwi-essen.de/publikationen/
Related research
Keywords: Higher education; wage differentials; occupational sorting; glass ceiling; United Kingdom;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education and Research Institutions
- I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
- J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2012-11-24 (All new papers)
- NEP-EDU-2012-11-24 (Education)
- NEP-EUR-2012-11-24 (Microeconomic European Issues)
- NEP-LAB-2012-11-24 (Labour Economics)
- NEP-LMA-2012-11-24 (Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, & Wages)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Ian Walker & Yu Zhu, 2008.
"The College Wage Premium and the Expansion of Higher Education in the UK,"
Studies in Economics
0809, Department of Economics, University of Kent.
- Ian Walker & Yu Zhu, 2008. "The College Wage Premium and the Expansion of Higher Education in the UK," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(4), pages 695-709, December.
- Ian Walker & Yu Zhu, 2008. "The College Wage Premium and the Expansion of Higher Education in the UK," Working Papers 200817, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
- Iftikhar Hussain & Sandra McNally & Shqiponja Telhaj, 2009.
"University Quality and Graduate Wages in the UK,"
CEE Discussion Papers
0099, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
- Hussain, Iftikhar & McNally, Sandra & Telhaj, Shqiponja, 2009. "University Quality and Graduate Wages in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 4043, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Joseph G. Altonji & Charles R. Pierret, 1997.
"Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination,"
NBER Working Papers
6279, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Joseph G. Altonji & Charles R. Pierret, 2001. "Employer Learning And Statistical Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(1), pages 313-350, February.
- Joseph G. Altonji & Charles R. Pierret, 1997. "Employer learning and statistical discrimination," Working Paper Series, Macroeconomic Issues WP-97-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
- Joseph G. Altonji & Charles R. Pierret, . "Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination," IPR working papers 97-18, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
- Jo Blanden & Stephen Machin, 2004. "Educational Inequality and the Expansion of UK Higher Education," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(2), pages 230-249, 05.
- Bauer, Thomas K. & Haisken-DeNew, John P., 2001.
"Employer learning and the returns to schooling,"
Labour Economics,
Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 161-180, May.
- Bauer, Thomas & Haisken-DeNew, John P, 2000. "Employer Learning And The Returns To Schooling," CEPR Discussion Papers 2445, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Bauer, Thomas K. & Haisken-DeNew, John P., 2000. "Employer Learning and the Returns to Schooling," IZA Discussion Papers 146, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Belfield, C. R. & Fielding, A., 2001. "Measuring the relationship between resources and outcomes in higher education in the UK," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 589-602, December.
- Delaney, Liam & Harmon, Colm P. & Redmond, Cathy, 2011.
"Parental Education, Grade Attainment and Earnings Expectations among University Students,"
IZA Discussion Papers
5646, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Delaney, Liam & Harmon, Colm & Redmond, Cathy, 2011. "Parental education, grade attainment and earnings expectations among university students," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1136-1152.
- Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 1995. "Selection corrections for panel data models under conditional mean independence assumptions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 115-132, July.
- Nigel C. O'Leary & Peter J. Sloane, 2011. "The Wage Premium For University Education In Great Britain During A Decade Of Change," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(4), pages 740-764, 07.
Citations
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rwi:repape:0377For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Sabine Weiler).
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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

