IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecorec/v101y2025i334p377-391.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Falling Returns to Education in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Elisa Birch
  • Alison Preston

Abstract

Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey for a sample of employees aged 28–38, this paper examines changes in returns to education between 2001–2011 and 2012–2023. The study controls for seven education categories (PhD, Master's, Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate, Honours, Bachelor's and Diploma/Certificate III/IV) using individuals with no post‐school qualifications as the reference group. Over the study period, there is a significant decline in the wage premia (returns) within all education groups, except PhD and Graduate Certificates. The extent of the decline varies by education category, gender, sector and across the wage distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisa Birch & Alison Preston, 2025. "The Falling Returns to Education in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 101(334), pages 377-391, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:101:y:2025:i:334:p:377-391
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-4932.12878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4932.12878
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-4932.12878?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:bla:ecorec:v:101:y:2025:i:334:p:377-391. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.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.