Returns to Education in Australia

Using data from the 2001-2005 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, and taking account of existing estimates of ability bias and social returns to schooling, I estimate the economic return to various levels of education. Raising high school attainment appears to yield the highest annual benefits, with per-year gains as high as 30 percent (depending on the adjustment for ability bias). Some forms of vocational training also appear to boost earnings, with significant gains from Certificate Level III/IV qualifications (for high school dropouts only), and from Diploma and Advanced Diploma qualifications. At the university level, Bachelor degrees and postgraduate qualifications are associated with significantly higher earnings, with each year of a Bachelor degree raising annual earnings by about 15 percent. For high school, slightly less than half the gains are due to increased productivity, with the rest due to higher levels of participation. For vocational training, about one-third of the gains are from productivity, and two-thirds from greater participation. For university, most of the gains are from productivity. I find some evidence that the productivity benefits of education are higher towards the top of the distribution, but the participation effects are higher towards the bottom of the conditional earnings distribution.
NOTE: This paper uses confidentialised unit record file data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (MIAESR). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either FaCS or the MIAESR. Since the data used in this paper are confidential, they cannot be shared with other researchers. Instructions on how to order the data are available at http://melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/data.html. The Stata do-file used to create the regression results is available from the author upon request. Parts of this paper were drawn from a report prepared for the Victorian Department of Education, who should not be assumed to agree with its contents. I am grateful to the editor (Russell Smyth) and an anonymous referee for valuable feedback on an earlier draft.

本研究采用2001-2005年澳大利亚家庭、收入与劳动力动态调查（Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, HILDA）的面板数据，结合已有的能力偏差与教育社会回报率估算结果，对不同教育层级的经济回报率进行了测算。研究发现，提升高中阶段教育完成率似乎能带来最高的年度收益，年均收益增幅最高可达30%（具体数值取决于能力偏差的调整方式）。部分职业培训形式同样可显著提升劳动者收入：仅面向高中辍学者的三级/四级证书（Certificate Level III/IV）资格，以及文凭、高级文凭资格，均能带来可观的收益提升。在高等教育领域，学士学位与研究生学历均与收入水平呈显著正相关关系，学士学位每多修读一年，可使年收入提升约15%。

针对不同教育类型的收益来源拆解显示：高中教育的收益增长中，略低于一半源于生产率提升，剩余部分则源于更高的劳动参与率；职业培训的收益增长中，约三分之一来自生产率提升，三分之二则源于更高的劳动参与率；而高等教育的绝大多数收益增长均来自生产率提升。

本研究还发现部分经验证据表明，教育的生产率收益在收入分布的上端更为显著，而劳动参与率的提升效应则在条件收入分布的下端更为突出。

注：本文使用了澳大利亚家庭、收入与劳动力动态调查（HILDA）的保密单位记录文件数据。HILDA项目由澳大利亚联邦家庭与社区服务部（Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services, FaCS）发起并资助，由墨尔本应用经济与社会研究所（Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, MIAESR）负责运营管理。但本文所报告的研究发现与观点仅代表作者本人，不应归因于FaCS或MIAESR。由于本文使用的数据为保密数据，无法向其他研究人员共享。获取该数据的相关说明可访问网址http://melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/data.html。用于生成回归结果的Stata do文件可应读者要求向作者索取。本文部分内容源自为维多利亚州教育部撰写的一份报告，不应假定该部门同意本文的全部内容。本文感谢编辑拉塞尔·史密夫（Russell Smyth）与匿名审稿人对本文早期草稿提出的宝贵修改意见。