(Un)equal Educational Opportunities and the Labor Market: A Theoretical Analysis. (19th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Benegas, Maurício; Corrêa, Márcio Veras
• Is Part Of: Labour. Volume 31:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 433
• Page End: 456
• Publication Date: 2017-05-19
• Subjects: Labor economics -- Periodicals; Labor economics -- Europe -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Europe -- Periodicals; Labor market -- Periodicals; Labor market -- Europe -- Periodicals; 331
• DOI: 10.1111/labr.12100
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1121-7081

Abstract

Abstract: This paper intends to study the effects of public school quality offer on the labor market performance. With this objective in mind, we build a matching model for the labor market in two sectors: schooled and non‐schooled. The skilled segment of the economy is endogenous and composed of a continuum of workers who differ in the quality of the school attended. We show that there is a trade‐off between the quantity and the quality of education and that a reduction in schooling costs increases school enrollment rates. However, it adversely reduces the job creation dynamics in the skilled sector, due to the Composition Effect . We also verify that a first order improvement in school quality distribution may generate an increase in the schooling rate and a greater job vacancy creation in the skilled sector with no negative effects on the unskilled sector.