Do public sector workers earn a wage premium in Djibouti and are the returns to education different across the sectors? The authors estimate private and public sector wage earnings using 1996 household survey data, while controlling for selectivity using Heckman's two stage approach. They find that Djiboutian public sector employees earn a wage premium, independent of their personal attributes and human capital endowments, and are more likely to be males and have parents in the public sector. Workers in the public sector earn higher private rates of return to education than do private sector workers with post-secondary schooling. These results raise concerns about current government hiring and wage-setting practices that generate distortions in the labor market and are not efficiently allocating labor and public resources.

Do public sector workers earn a wage premium in Djibouti and are the returns to education different across the sectors? The authors estimate private and public sector wage earnings using 1996 household survey data, while controlling for selectivity using Heckman's two stage approach. They find that Djiboutian public sector employees earn a wage premium, independent of their personal attributes and human capital endowments, and are more likely to be males and have parents in the public sector. Workers in the public sector earn higher private rates of return to education than do private sector workers with post-secondary schooling. These results raise concerns about current government hiring and wage-setting practices that generate distortions in the labor market and are not efficiently allocating labor and public resources.

May 1998 One study shows that as Vietnam liberalizes its labor market, private rates of return to primary and higher education are already relatively high-and could be higher yet with greater cost recovery and lower costs (a more efficient system). The transition from a centrally planned to a market economy is likely to have a strong impact on the labor market, on relative earnings, and on returns to education. Major economic reforms in Vietnam since 1986 (the policy known as Doi Moi) have included a number of measures to liberalize the labor market. It is too soon to assess the full impact of these reforms, but Moock, Patrinos, and Venkataraman analyze the returns to education, on the basis of earnings in 1992-93 (collected in the first Vietnam Living Standards Survey). This represents one of the first countrywide analyses of the monetary benefits of schooling in Vietnam at a time when the labor market was in transition. On average, the estimated rates of returns are still relatively low, which is to be expected, since salary reforms were not introduced until 1993. Average private rates of return to primary education (13 percent) and university education (11 percent) are higher than those to secondary and vocational education (only 4 to 5 percent). Returns to higher education are slightly higher for women (12 percent) than for men (10 percent). Evidence from other transition economies suggests that returns are likely to increase as reforms in the labor market take full effect. The results support this hypothesis: Returns for younger Vietnamese workers (14 percent) are considerably higher than for older workers (only 4 percent). Implications for policymaking: * It is important to monitor future earnings and trends in the labor market, as updates of this analysis could provide more robust estimates of the transition's effects on earnings and returns to education. * At a time when the Vietnamese government is reassessing its pricing policy, the fact that private rates of return to higher education are relatively high suggests the potential for greater cost recovery. * Efforts to improve efficiency in secondary and higher education could increase the rate of return by lowering costs. This paper-a joint product of the East Asia and Pacific, Country Department I, Human Resources Operations Division, and Human Development Network, Education Team-is part of a larger effort in the Bank to analyze the economic benefits of schooling in transition economies. The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

Wage-differentials by education of men and women are examined from African household surveys to suggest private wage returns to schooling. It is commonly asserted that returns are highest at primary school levels and decrease at secondary and postsecondary levels, whereas private returns in six African countries are today highest at the secondary and post secondary levels, and rates are similar for women as for men. The large public subsidies for postsecondary education in Africa, therefore, are not needed to motivate students to enroll, and those who have in the past enrolled in these levels of education are disproportionately from the better-educated families. Higher education in Africa could be more efficient and more equitably distributed if the children of well-educated parents paid the public costs of their schooling, and these tuition revenues facilitated the expansion of higher education and financed fellowships for children of the poor and less educated parents.

The Ethiopian labor market is facing the dual challenge of creating new employment opportunities for the rapidly expanding labor force and improving the quality of existing jobs in the labor market. In this paper, the authors estimate an earnings function for the urban wage-employed to understand how investment in human capital shapes labor market outcomes and to what extent human capital returns have been realized. Their key findings show that there are significant gains associated with acquiring higher levels of education in the urban labor market. Interestingly, the authors also find that the margin of completed primary compared to incomplete primary education is critical in explaining earning gains. This finding has important implications for education policies in Ethiopia, a country in which about five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) is invested on education annually with nearly half of the budget ear-marked for tertiary level education. Understanding the returns from various levels of education, in different sectors, regions, as well as gender gaps in earning are critical to think about public investment choices and labor market policies that can support nudging market inclusiveness, equity, and efficiency. Investments by the government aimed at incentivizing completion of primary education can go a long way in ensuing higher wages and improving standards of living in Ethiopia.

"The second BREDA report on EFA in Africa completes the previous one published in 2005. It incorporates the most recent available data, for 2004/05 or 2005/06 and as such, benefits from the necessary hindsight for drawing up a precise statement of the consequences of the Dakar Forum [2000]."--Page 17.