Events at The University of Manchester
  • University home
  • Events
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
  • Conferences
  • Lectures and seminars
  • Performances
  • Events for prospective students
  • Sustainability events
  • Family events
  • All Events

Afternoon Seminars@CMIST - Michael L Smith (Economics Institute)

Dates:3 February 2015
Times:16:00 - 17:15
What is it:Seminar
Organiser:School of Social Sciences
Who is it for:University staff, Current University students, General public
Speaker:Michael L Smith
See travel and contact information
Add to your calendar

More information

  • Seminars@CMIST calendar

Other events

  • In category "Seminar"
  • In group "(CMIst) Affiliated event"
  • In group "(SoSS) Social Statistics"
  • By School of Social Sciences

In this Afternoon Seminars@CMIST event, Michael L Smith from the Economics Institute will give a talk entitled 'Selection Bias in Heterogeneous Returns to College in Highly Stratified Educational Systems in Europe'. All Afternoon Seminars@CMIST events are held in 2.07 HBS from 16:00 until 17:15.

All welcome, no registration required, tea and coffee provided.

Abstract

Information on economic returns to college education has indisputable value for policymakers and individuals, yet standard estimates hinge on unrealistic assumptions about the homogeneity of treatment effects across the population or do not take into account differences in the backgrounds of college-goers and non-college-goers. In this paper we address those issues by using the newly developed local instrumental variable method for heterogeneous treatment effects due to unobservables presented in general form in Heckman, Urzua, and Vytlacil (2006). Estimates are performed for 28-to-38-year-olds in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, and Slovakia (and the United Kingdom as well, as an additional point of reference) based on pooled EU-SILC data from 2005 and 2011, i.e. two waves when data on parental background were also collected. Our results reveal the presence of both positive sorting bias and negative ability bias, across countries for both men and women in most, though not all, modeled conditions. In a world of essential heterogeneity, we find that the marginal returns to education for those who achieved some kind of college degree are substantively larger than the estimated returns for those who did not go to college, as well as for estimates generated from a Mincer-type model using the same data. To understand these findings, we suggest that the highly stratified nature of the educational systems we examine has fostered mechanisms that make students more realistic about their educational and economic prospects, which may contribute to the size of positive sorting estimated.

Speaker

Michael L Smith

Role: Researcher

Organisation: Economics Institute

  • https://www.cerge-ei.cz/researchers/michael-l-smith-phd

Travel and Contact Information

Find event

2.07
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester

Contact event

Seminars@CMIST

cmist.seminars@manchester.ac.uk

Contact us

  • +44 (0) 161 306 6000

Find us

The University of Manchester
Oxford Rd
Manchester
M13 9PL
UK

Connect with the University

  • Facebook page for The University of Manchester
  • X (formerly Twitter) page for The University of Manchester
  • YouTube page for The University of Manchester
  • Instagram page for The University of Manchester
  • TikTok page for The University of Manchester
  • LinkedIn page for The University of Manchester

  • Privacy /
  • Copyright notice /
  • Accessibility /
  • Freedom of information /
  • Charitable status /
  • Royal Charter Number: RC000797
  • Close menu
  • Home
    • Featured events
    • Today's events
    • The Whitworth events
    • Manchester Museum events
    • Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre events
    • Martin Harris Centre events
    • The John Rylands Library events
    • Exhibitions
    • Conferences
    • Lectures and seminars
    • Performances
    • Events for prospective students
    • Sustainability events
    • Family events
    • All events