Studies in Human Capital, Ability and Migration
(2007) In Lund Economic Studies 141.- Abstract
- This thesis consists of an introductory chapter followed by four separate papers. The papers deal with various aspects of human capital, ability and migration.
Using the Swedish Military Enlistment test, the first paper, Ability and Rates of Return to Schooling ? making use of the Swedish Enlistment Battery Test, estimates the return to schooling for individuals belonging to different parts of the ability distribution. It also attempts to predict whether an endogenous test score causes bias in the ?ability-specific? returns to schooling that varies with the test score. A significant finding is that a higher score in the test is associated with a higher return to schooling, but that the positive association is diminishing... (More) - This thesis consists of an introductory chapter followed by four separate papers. The papers deal with various aspects of human capital, ability and migration.
Using the Swedish Military Enlistment test, the first paper, Ability and Rates of Return to Schooling ? making use of the Swedish Enlistment Battery Test, estimates the return to schooling for individuals belonging to different parts of the ability distribution. It also attempts to predict whether an endogenous test score causes bias in the ?ability-specific? returns to schooling that varies with the test score. A significant finding is that a higher score in the test is associated with a higher return to schooling, but that the positive association is diminishing in the test score. In general, the bias in the ability-specific returns to schooling does not seem to vary with the test score level.
The second paper, Immigrants? Return to Schooling in Sweden, aims to find out if the returns to immigrants? schooling are lower than the returns to natives? schooling. In addition the paper tries to establish whether immigrants who invest in different amounts of Swedish education also differ in their returns to schooling. The results show that the difference in returns to schooling between immigrants and natives is generally quite small. Moreover, the returns to schooling are considerably higher for immigrants who arrived in Sweden during compulsory school age than for immigrants who arrived in Sweden after compulsory school age. Moreover, immigrants who complete their schooling in Sweden show, in general, much higher returns than immigrants with only foreign schooling.
The third paper, The Income Gap Between Natives and Second Generation Immigrants in Sweden: Is Skill the Explanation?, analyze whether the income gap between second generation immigrants and natives is caused by a skill gap rather than ethnic discrimination. Once the result of the Swedish Military Enlistment Test is controlled for, the income gap almost disappears for second generation immigrants with both parents born in Southern Europe or outside Europe. However, when using a regular set of control variables the income gap becomes overestimated. This difference in results is most likely explained by the fact that schooling is a bad measure of productive skills for these groups of second generation immigrants. It indicates that they compensate for their lower probability of being employed by investing in (in relation to their skill level) more schooling than otherwise similar natives.
The purpose of the final paper, Ethnic Segregation and Educational Attainment in Sweden, is to study whether youths who have attended ethnically segregated schools differ in their educational attainment compared to youths from less segregated schools in metropolitan Sweden, after controlling for family characteristics. To locate the ethnically segregated schools, we use the share of first and second generation immigrants among pupils graduating from a particular school. If the effect on educational attainment increases with the rate of ethnic school segregation, an association between ethnic segregation and individual educational attainment can be established. The results indicate that there is an association between attending an ethnically segregated school and educational attainment. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Popular Abstract in Swedish
Avhandlingen innehåller ett inledningskapitel följt av fyra separata studier. Studierna behandlar olika aspekter av humankapital, begåvning och immigration.
I den första studien, Ability and Rates of Return to Schooling ? making use of the Swedish Enlistment Battery Test, används det svenska mönstringstestet för att skatta avkastningen på utbildningen för individer med olika resultat på testet. Det svenska mönstringstestet antas mäta kognitiv förmåga. Studien finner att avkastningen på utbildning ökar med individens resultat på mönstringstestet, men att ökningen är avtagande med resultatet. Endogenitet, i detta sammanhang att individens latenta begåvningsnivå påverkar både... (More) - Popular Abstract in Swedish
Avhandlingen innehåller ett inledningskapitel följt av fyra separata studier. Studierna behandlar olika aspekter av humankapital, begåvning och immigration.
I den första studien, Ability and Rates of Return to Schooling ? making use of the Swedish Enlistment Battery Test, används det svenska mönstringstestet för att skatta avkastningen på utbildningen för individer med olika resultat på testet. Det svenska mönstringstestet antas mäta kognitiv förmåga. Studien finner att avkastningen på utbildning ökar med individens resultat på mönstringstestet, men att ökningen är avtagande med resultatet. Endogenitet, i detta sammanhang att individens latenta begåvningsnivå påverkar både testresultatet och individens utbildningsnivå, tycks inte leda till skeva avkastning på utbildningestimat.
Den andra studien, Immigrants? Return to Schooling in Sweden, avser att undersöka om invandrares avkastning på utbildning skiljer sig från infödda svenskars avkastning på utbildning. Studien undersöker dessutom om avkastningen på utbildning för invandrare varierar beroende på om utbildningen är förvärvad i Sverige eller i utlandet. Resultaten visar att invandrare har en något lägre avkastning på utbildning än svenskar. Vidare så är avkastningen på utbildning betydligt högre för invandrare som kommit till Sverige under grundskoleålder än för invandrare som kommit till Sverige i vuxen ålder. För invandrare som kommit till Sverige i vuxen ålder och som investerat i svensk utbildning är avkastningen på utbildning högre än för invandrare med endast utländsk utbildning.
I den tredje studien The Income Gap Between Natives and Second Generation Immigrants in Sweden: Is Skill the Explanation? används mönstringstestet för att analysera om inkomstgapet mellan andragenerationsinvandrare och svenskar är orsakade av ett motsvarande gap i ?skills?. Tidigare studier har inte kunnat avfärda att inkomstgapet beror på etnisk diskriminering. När man i inkomstregressionen kontrollerar för resultatet på mönstringstestet så förklaras stora delar av inkomstskillnaden mellan svenskar och andragenerationsinvandrare med båda föräldrarna födda i Sydeuropa eller utanför Europa. När de vanliga kontrollvariablerna inkluderas i inkomstregressionen så överskattas inkomstgapet. Orsaken till skillnaderna i resultat är antagligen att utbildningsår är ett dåligt produktivitetsmått för dessa grupper av andragenerationsinvandrare. Studien visar dessutom att gapet i ?skills? främst beror på bristande språkfärdigheter.
I den fjärde och sista studien Ethnic Segregation and Educational Attainment in Sweden analyseras det huruvida ungdomar som har gått på etniskt segregerade skolor i Storstadssverige skaffar mindre utbildning än jämförbara ungdomar (givet familjebakgrund) som har gått på icke-segregerade skolor. Andelen första- och andragenerationens invandrare som går på en skola används för att lokalisera de etniskt segregerade skolorna. Ett samband mellan etnisk skolsegregation och utbildningsnivå förekommer om det är så att effekten av att gå på en etniskt segregerad skola varierar med den etniska segregationsnivån. Resultaten i studien tyder på att ungdomar som gått på etniskt segregerade skolor skaffar mindre utbildning än ungdomar som gått på icke-segregerade skolor. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/548638
- author
- Nordin, Martin LU
- supervisor
-
- Inga Persson LU
- opponent
-
- Professor Björklund, Anders, Sofi, Stockholms universitet
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- economic systems, economic policy, Nationalekonomi, economic theory, ethnic segregation, school effect, Economics, econometrics, ethnic discrimination, productive skills, cognitive ability, test score, immigrant, second generation immigrant, educational attainment, wages, return to schooling, incomes, ekonomisk teori, ekonomiska system, ekonometri, ekonomisk politik
- in
- Lund Economic Studies
- volume
- 141
- pages
- 133 pages
- publisher
- Department of Economics, Lund University
- defense location
- EC3:211, Holger Crafoords Ekonomicentrum, Lund.
- defense date
- 2007-05-25 10:15:00
- ISSN
- 0460-0029
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Martin Nordin. . Ability and Rates of Return to Schooling – making use of the Swedish Enlistment Battery Test Journal of Population Economics, Springer (inpress)Martin Nordin and Dan-Olof Rooth. 2007. The Income Gap Between Natives and Second Generation Immigrants in Sweden: Is Skill the Explanation? (submitted)
- id
- 64f15427-7b47-4d05-9854-1d77fbc4aafe (old id 548638)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:18:14
- date last changed
- 2019-05-21 17:02:52
@phdthesis{64f15427-7b47-4d05-9854-1d77fbc4aafe,
abstract = {{This thesis consists of an introductory chapter followed by four separate papers. The papers deal with various aspects of human capital, ability and migration.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
Using the Swedish Military Enlistment test, the first paper, Ability and Rates of Return to Schooling ? making use of the Swedish Enlistment Battery Test, estimates the return to schooling for individuals belonging to different parts of the ability distribution. It also attempts to predict whether an endogenous test score causes bias in the ?ability-specific? returns to schooling that varies with the test score. A significant finding is that a higher score in the test is associated with a higher return to schooling, but that the positive association is diminishing in the test score. In general, the bias in the ability-specific returns to schooling does not seem to vary with the test score level.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The second paper, Immigrants? Return to Schooling in Sweden, aims to find out if the returns to immigrants? schooling are lower than the returns to natives? schooling. In addition the paper tries to establish whether immigrants who invest in different amounts of Swedish education also differ in their returns to schooling. The results show that the difference in returns to schooling between immigrants and natives is generally quite small. Moreover, the returns to schooling are considerably higher for immigrants who arrived in Sweden during compulsory school age than for immigrants who arrived in Sweden after compulsory school age. Moreover, immigrants who complete their schooling in Sweden show, in general, much higher returns than immigrants with only foreign schooling.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The third paper, The Income Gap Between Natives and Second Generation Immigrants in Sweden: Is Skill the Explanation?, analyze whether the income gap between second generation immigrants and natives is caused by a skill gap rather than ethnic discrimination. Once the result of the Swedish Military Enlistment Test is controlled for, the income gap almost disappears for second generation immigrants with both parents born in Southern Europe or outside Europe. However, when using a regular set of control variables the income gap becomes overestimated. This difference in results is most likely explained by the fact that schooling is a bad measure of productive skills for these groups of second generation immigrants. It indicates that they compensate for their lower probability of being employed by investing in (in relation to their skill level) more schooling than otherwise similar natives.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The purpose of the final paper, Ethnic Segregation and Educational Attainment in Sweden, is to study whether youths who have attended ethnically segregated schools differ in their educational attainment compared to youths from less segregated schools in metropolitan Sweden, after controlling for family characteristics. To locate the ethnically segregated schools, we use the share of first and second generation immigrants among pupils graduating from a particular school. If the effect on educational attainment increases with the rate of ethnic school segregation, an association between ethnic segregation and individual educational attainment can be established. The results indicate that there is an association between attending an ethnically segregated school and educational attainment.}},
author = {{Nordin, Martin}},
issn = {{0460-0029}},
keywords = {{economic systems; economic policy; Nationalekonomi; economic theory; ethnic segregation; school effect; Economics; econometrics; ethnic discrimination; productive skills; cognitive ability; test score; immigrant; second generation immigrant; educational attainment; wages; return to schooling; incomes; ekonomisk teori; ekonomiska system; ekonometri; ekonomisk politik}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Department of Economics, Lund University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Lund Economic Studies}},
title = {{Studies in Human Capital, Ability and Migration}},
volume = {{141}},
year = {{2007}},
}