IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apeclt/v11y2004i4p259-261.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do employers use education as a signal for ability in developing countries? Evidence from Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Eric Strobl

Abstract

This study investigates whether employers in developing countries use education as a signal for employees' productivity using data for Ghana manufacturing. Evidence is found supportive of this for individuals who were not hired through direct contacts in the firm, and thus for individuals for whom employers are likely to have relatively less information about their productive abilities. This result seems to rest on adequately controlling for on-the-job-training.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Strobl, 2004. "Do employers use education as a signal for ability in developing countries? Evidence from Ghana," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4), pages 259-261.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:11:y:2004:i:4:p:259-261
    DOI: 10.1080/13504850410001674920
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&doi=10.1080/13504850410001674920&magic=repec&7C&7C8674ECAB8BB840C6AD35DC6213A474B5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13504850410001674920?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph G. Altonji & Charles R. Pierret, 2001. "Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 313-350.
    2. 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.
    3. Teal, Francis, 2000. "Real wages and the demand for skilled and unskilled male labour in Ghana's manufacturing sector: 1991-1995," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 447-461, April.
    4. Francis Teal, 1995. "Real wages and the demand for labour in Ghana`s manufacturing sector," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/1995-07, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    5. Hessel Oosterbeek & Edwin Leuven, 2001. "Firm-Specific Human Capital as a Shared Investment: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 342-347, March.
    6. Masanori Hashimoto, 2001. "Firm-Specific Human Capital as a Shared Investment: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 348-349, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bok Hoon & Daniel Parent, 2013. "Learning and the Form of Compensation," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 79-98, March.
    2. Wang, Jun & Li, Bo, 2020. "Does employer learning with statistical discrimination exist in China? Evidence from Chinese Micro Survey Data," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 319-333.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Theodore Koutmeridis, 2013. "The Market for "Rough Diamonds": Information, Finance and Wage Inequality," CDMA Working Paper Series 201307, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis, revised 14 Oct 2013.
    2. Mueller, Barbara & Wolter, Stefan C., 2011. "The Consequences of Being Different: Statistical Discrimination and the School-to-Work Transition," IZA Discussion Papers 5474, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Steffen Habermalz, 2014. "Rational inattention and employer learning," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 66(2), pages 605-626.
    4. Light, Audrey & McGee, Andrew, 2015. "Does employer learning vary by schooling attainment? The answer depends on how career start dates are defined," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 57-66.
    5. Daniel Kreisman & Jonathan Smith & Bondi Arifin, 2023. "Labor Market Signaling and the Value of College: Evidence from Resumes and the Truth," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(6), pages 1820-1849.
    6. Hanan Nazier, 2019. "Estimating Labor Demand Elasticities and Elasticities of Substitution in Egyptian Manufacturing Sector: A Firm-Level Static Analysis," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 549-575, December.
    7. James Heintz & Robert Pollin, 2008. "Targeting Employment Expansion, Economic Growth and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Outlines of an Alternative Economic Programme for the Region," Published Studies targeting_employment_expa, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    8. Barbara Mueller & Stefan Wolter, 2014. "The role of hard-to-obtain information on ability for the school-to-work transition," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1447-1471, June.
    9. Audrey Light & Andrew McGee, 2011. "Employer Learning and the “Importance” of Skills," Working Papers 11-02, Ohio State University, Department of Economics.
    10. Galindo-Rueda, Fernando, 2003. "Employer Learning and Schooling-Related Statistical Discrimination in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 778, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. repec:zbw:rwirep:0352 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Wang, Jun & Li, Bo, 2020. "Does employer learning with statistical discrimination exist in China? Evidence from Chinese Micro Survey Data," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 319-333.
    13. Steven F. Koch & S. Ssekabira Ntege, 2008. "Returns To Schooling: Skills Accumulation Or Information Revelation?," Working Papers 200812, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    14. Kenneth A. Counch, 2003. "Job Matching and Wage Growth in the U.S. and Germany," Working papers 2003-10, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    15. Strobl, Eric, 2003. "Is Education Used as a Signaling Device for Productivity in Developing Countries? Evidence from Ghana," IZA Discussion Papers 683, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Marcel Fafchampsm & Måns Söderbom, 2006. "Wages and Labor Management in African Manufacturing," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(2).
    17. Baek, Jisun & Park, Wooram, 2018. "Higher Education, Productivity Revelation and Performance-pay Jobs," KDI Journal of Economic Policy, Korea Development Institute (KDI), vol. 40(4), pages 65-80.
    18. Seik Kim & Emiko Usui, 2021. "Employer learning, job changes, and wage dynamics," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(3), pages 1286-1307, July.
    19. Nakabayashi, Masaki, 2011. "Schooling, employer learning, and internal labor market effect: Wage dynamics and human capital investment in the Japanese steel industry, 1930-1960s," MPRA Paper 30597, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Bok Hoon & Daniel Parent, 2013. "Learning and the Form of Compensation," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 79-98, March.
    21. Kleibrink, Jan & Michaelsen, Maren M., 2012. "Reaching High: Occupational Sorting and Higher Education Wage Inequality in the UK," Ruhr Economic Papers 377, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.

    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:taf:apeclt:v:11:y:2004:i:4:p:259-261. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEL20 .

    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.