Higher Education attainment : the case of intergenerational transmission of education in Portugal

The lack of formal education and competences of the Portuguese workers is one of the biggest problems of the country. This lack is disappearing as quickly as desired and the young generations still lag far behind those in other OECD countries. This paper studies the intergenerational transmission of education achievement, in particular higher education completion, seeking to determine the influence on future attainment of parents’ education and labor market conditions while the child was growing up. We conclude that the education of the parents is very important, even if it is only one of them that has it. This influence seems not to be independent of the gender of the parent who has it. The fact that the parents face unemployment has a negative effect on the educational achievement of the child. Females generally perform better than males, but there are exceptions. For instance, it is significantly lower if the father has low education and the mother has secondary or higher education.N/

Does Education Reduce Wage Inequality? Quantile Regressions Evidence from Fifteen European Countries

We address the impact of education upon wage inequality by drawing on evidence from fifteen European countries, during a period ranging between 1980 and 1995. We focus on within-educational-levels wage inequality by estimating quantile regressions of Mincer equations and analysing the differences in returns to education across the wage distribution and across time. Four different patterns emerge: 1) a positive and increasing contribution of education upon within-levels wage inequality the case of Portugal; 2) a positive but stable role of education in terms of inequality Austria, Finland, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK; 3) a neutral role Denmark and Italy; and 4) a negative impact Germany and Greece. We thus find that in most countries dispersion in earnings increases with educational levels and that education is a risky investment. These results suggest a positive interaction between schooling and ability with respect to earnings.Returns to Education, Earnings Inequality, Quantile Regressions, Ability, Education Systems, Labour-Market Institutions.

Portuguese emigration 1958-1985: some empirical evidence

Supplying work in the home country or abroad must be seen as the result of the same decisional process. If that is true, the same set of variables should be used to explain the participa tion in the labor market and the emigration rates. Based upon empirical results, we discuss some of the traditional conclusions of the economic literature. Our empirical results, for example, show that: 1) there is a strong support for considering home wages and the wages in the country of destination asymmetrically, 2) imperfections in the capital markets seem to play an important role when workers must pay for their moving expenses and 3) there is a differential in coefficients between the period before 1974 and after that date, as 1974 is the year most of the Central European countries changed their immigration policies. The results also point to the existence of a large stock of potential emigrants in Portugal. The actual emigration will depend to a great extent on expectations regarding the evolution of real wages in Portugal and in the EC partners. If workers do not expect a rapid growth at home, we will see a large outflow due to the differential of wage levels.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Portuguese Population in France: a snapshot 25 years after their arrival

In year 2000 Portugal is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the arrival to Brazil. The Portuguese overseas adventure is now five centuries old and more than one third of the Portuguese nationals are living outside their homeland; in France they are the largest foreign community. This paper uses the data from the French Employment Survey (Enqujte de l Emploi) 1994 and 1995 to characterise the Portuguese population and to study individual decisions taken by the Portuguese migrants concerning naturalisation, family, residence and education. As a result of the analysis it seems that the decisions of the younger Portuguese are getting closer to the decisions of their French neighbours, increasing the gap with respect to the decisions of their countrymen who stayed in Portugal. In this very sense, we can say that some assimilation by the Portuguese is occurring in France. There is an educational convergence of the Portuguese migrants in France and the French.

Is there a return–risk link in education?

Using results for 16 countries, the positive relationship between return to education and the risk involved in this investment is studied. It seems that most of the countries fit the pattern well: higher risk–higher return and the tradeoff is rather large.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Educational qualifications and wage inequality: evidence for Europe

In this paper we investigate the connection between education and wage inequality in nine European countries. We exploit the quantile regression technique to calculate returns to lower secondary, upper secondary and tertiary education at different points of the wage distribution. Using data from the last few decades, we describe changes in the conditional wage distribution of the surveyed countries. We find that in most European countries the amount of conditional wage dispersion within education groups is substantially higher and has grown faster among college-edu cated workers than among less educated workersEn este artículo analizamos la conexión entre educación y desigualdad salarial en nueve países Europeos. Empleamos la técnica de la regresión quintílica para calcular, en diferentes puntos de la distribución salarial, la rentabilidad del primer y segundo ciclo de la educación secundaria y la rentabilidad de la educación. Utilizando datos de las últimas décadas, describimos cambios en la distribución condicional de los salarios en los diferentes países. Hallamos que en la mayoría de países la dispersión sa larial condicionada dentro de los diferentes grupos educativos es mayor y ha aumentado más entre los trabajadores con educación universitaria que entre los trabajadores con menos estudios.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Does Education Reduce Wage Inequality? Quantile Regressions Evidence from Fifteen European Countries

We address the impact of education upon wage inequality by drawing on evidence from fifteen European countries, during a period ranging between 1980 and 1995. We focus on within-educational-levels wage inequality by estimating quantile regressions of Mincer equations and analyzing the differences in returns to education across the wage distribution and across time. Four different patterns emerge: 1) a positive and increasing contribution of education upon within-levels wage inequality –the case of Portugal; 2) a positive but stable role of education in terms of inequality – Austria, Finland, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK; 3) a neutral role – Denmark and Italy; and 4) a negative impact – Germany and Greece. We thus find that in most countries dispersion in earnings increases with educational levels and that education is a risky investment. These results suggest a positive interaction between schooling and ability with respect to earnings.N/

Who values what in a tourism destination? The case of Madeira Island

This research studies the importance placed on different aspects of a tourism destination – Madeira Island – at the time tourists make their decision to visit. The authors use an ordered probit model to see how the socio-demographic characteristics of the tourists and different aspects of the trip affect the valuation given to 30 different aspects of the destination. They conclude that males tend to value 12 of the aspects less, while valuing golf more. Older tourists place a higher value on the scenery of the destination and a lower value on the more active/sport aspects. The more educated tourists value levadas (man-made water channels with pathways used for pedestrian walks) more and organized tours less. British tourists value the climate and Portuguese tourists value extreme sports. These results are very useful when preparing any marketing strategy and extremely important when preparing development plans for the tourism sector.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The contribution of vocational training to employment, job-related skills and productivity: evidence from Madeira

In this paper, we analyse the transition to the labor market of participants in vocational training in Madeira in Portugal. The analysis is in two stages. First, we investigate how the employ ment status at different dates (1 month, 1 year, and 2 years after the completion of the training program) depends on relevant variables, such as age, gender, education and the content and duration of the training. Second, we use individuals’ self assessment of the effectiveness of the training program along three dimensions: employment, job-related skills and produc tivity. The respondents score training activities high on every dimension. Moreover, we find that training is more effective among the educated, indicating that vocational training is far from being remedial. We also find that long training programs and training related to tourism are particularly effective.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Portuguese Population in France: a Snapshot 25 Years After Their Arrival

In year 2000 Portugal is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the arrival to Brazil. The Portuguese overseas adventure is now five centuries old and more than one third of the Portuguese nationals are living outside their homeland; in France they are the largest foreign community. This paper uses the data from the French Employment Survey (Enquête de l’ Emploi) 1994 and 1995 to characterise the Portuguese population and to study individual decisions taken by the Portuguese migrants concerning naturalisation, family, residence and education. As a result of the analysis it seems that the decisions of the younger Portuguese are getting closer to the decisions of their French neighbours, increasing the gap with respect to the decisions of their countrymen who stayed in Portugal. In this very sense, we can say that some assimilation by the Portuguese is occurring in France. There is an educational convergence of the Portuguese migrants in France and the French.N/