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Bounds on the Return to Education in Australia using Ability Bias

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  • Martine Mariotti
  • Juergen Meinecke

Abstract

We estimate the average return to education and the ability bias applying a parametric model of intra-household correlation suggested by Card (1999, 2001) to the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. Using the subsample of dual-earner households, we obtain an average return to education of 5.5% and an ability bias of 19%. Our paper is also the first to provide informative inference results on ability bias. We extrapolate the ability bias estimate from dual-earner households to the whole sample. Using Manski's (1989) nonparametric no assumptions bounds to partially identify the ability bias for the whole sample, we find that ability bias lies between 9% and 63%. This implies an average return to education of between 3.0% and 7.4% for the whole sample. Our estimates are conservative and compare well to other estimates of the average return to education which typically lie to the right of that interval.

Suggested Citation

  • Martine Mariotti & Juergen Meinecke, 2011. "Bounds on the Return to Education in Australia using Ability Bias," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2011-551, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2011-551
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    File URL: https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/econ/wp551.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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