South Korea is a society that puts great emphasis on educational background. Most high school students are committed to entering top universities as academic background is considered to be an important factor in getting a good job. According to rapid ...
South Korea is a society that puts great emphasis on educational background. Most high school students are committed to entering top universities as academic background is considered to be an important factor in getting a good job. According to rapid growth of higher education, a question has raised about the rate of return to investment in education in a present status where the ratio of students who go on to a postgraduate school.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference in the rate of return to investment in education by educational attainments. An analysis model of the rate of return to investment in education to be utilized in the study is Jacob Mincer's earning-power generation function.
Objects of analysis in the study is wage workers, aged from 30 to 55, who have been employed, with restriction to people who have monthly average incomes and educational attainments equal to and higher than those of college graduates. Plus, it is to analyze the wage differentials by major fields.
Main results of the study are as follows. By OLS estimation results, there is a difference in the rate of return to investment in education by educational attainments. Such results of the estimation prove that the investment in higher education may make higher wage in the future.
There was no change in the wage rates when I compared the rate of return to investment in education before the Global Financial Crisis and after. But it is possible to prediction the demand for higher education will be continuously getting higher.
In addition, the data showed, as the current trend in which the investment is heavily skewed in popular majors, that the rate of return to investment in different majors had the similar order.
Further studies needed on the analysis of which socially required number of higher education labor force and the cause of inflation of higher education based on the result of the rate of return to investment in the level of education. Moreover, the triggers of the discrimination for the people with graduate degrees in the labor market and the social phenomenon that those people are treated no differently than college graduates should be studied in depth.