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Do Vocational High School Graduates Have Better Employment Outcomes than General High School Graduates?

Author

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  • Torun, Huzeyfe

    (Central Bank of Turkey)

  • Tumen, Semih

    (Amazon)

Abstract

This paper estimates the causal effect of vocational high school (VHS) education on employment likeli-hood relative to general high school (GHS) education in Turkey using census data. To address non-random selection into high school types, we collect construction dates of the VHSs at the town-level and use VHS availability in the town by age 13 as an instrumental variable. The first-stage estimates suggest that the availability of VHS does not affect the overall high school graduation rates, but gener-ates a substitution from GHS to VHS. The OLS estimates yield the result that the individuals with a VHS degree are around 5 percentage points more likely to be employed compared to those with a GHS de-gree. When we use the availability of VHS as an instrumental variable, we still find positive and statisti-cally significant effect of VHS degree on employment likelihood relative to GHS degree. However, once we include town-specific socio-economic variables to control for education, employment, and business activity levels in the town, the IV estimates get much smaller and become statistically insignificant. We conclude that although the VHS construction generates a substitution from GHS to VHS education, this substitution is not transformed into increased employment rates in a statistically significant way. We also argue that location-specific controls improve the reliability of the school construction/proximity instruments.

Suggested Citation

  • Torun, Huzeyfe & Tumen, Semih, 2017. "Do Vocational High School Graduates Have Better Employment Outcomes than General High School Graduates?," IZA Discussion Papers 10507, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10507
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    2. Elad Demalach & Noam Zussman, 2017. "The Effect of Vocational Education on Short- and Long-Term Outcomes of Students: Evidence from the Arab Education System in Israel," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2017.11, Bank of Israel.
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    4. Joop Hartog & Pedro Raposo & Hugo Reis, 2022. "Fluctuations in the wage gap between vocational and general secondary education: lessons from Portugal," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(2), pages 643-675, April.
    5. Simona Lorena Comi & Mara Grasseni & Federica Origo, 2022. "Sometimes it works: the effect of a reform of the short vocational track on school-to-work transition," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(7), pages 1601-1619, April.
    6. Elad Demalach & Noam Zussman, 2023. "The Effect Of Vocational Education On Short- And Long-Term Outcomes," Israel Economic Review, Bank of Israel, vol. 21(2), pages 1-56, December.
    7. Zubaria Andlib & Aliya H Khan, 2018. "Low Female Labor Force Participation in Pakistan: Causes and Factors," Global Social Sciences Review, Humanity Only, vol. 3(3), pages 237-264, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    vocational education; employment; school construction; instrumental variables;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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