Surprisingly little is known about the relation between grades and wages. This relation is analysed using a sample of ca. 1'700 individuals that graduated in Swiss universities in 1998. Testing different operationalisations of the grade variable, we find a significant and robust effect of grades on the annual wage one year after graduation. When wage is specified as wage per actual hour of work, instead of formal hours of work, the effect becomes insignificant. Four years after graduation, however, grades have a higher and significant effect on wages based on formal working time as well as on wages based on actual working time. We conclude that people with higher grades get jobs with better career prospects when entering the labour market. Thus, the wage effect of university graduates' final grades is non-transitory and increasing over time. This finding calls for further research in the role that grades play in labour markets
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. 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.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft in its series Diskussionsschriften with number
dp0405.
References listed on IDEAS Please 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.: