Why do schooling returns differ?

Screening, private schools, and labor markets in the Philippines and Thailand

By: Yamauchi F
Produced by: Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID) , 2004

This paper examines returns to schooling in the Philippines and Thailand, using recent employee surveys in manufacturing industries. The results from the empirical study show that schooling returns increase stably as education attainment increases in Thailand whereas the returns increase only at university level in the Philippines. It finds that private school premiums are higher in the Philippines – this is consistent with the dominance of private institutions in the Philippine education system. The premiums from private schooling investments in the Philippines are, however, found to be false, in the sense that private schools screen high ability students, which augments wage.