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Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?

Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school... The purpose of this paper is to estimate the causal effect of vocational high school (VHS) education on employment likelihood relative to general high school (GHS) education in Turkey using Census data.Design/methodology/approachTo address non-random selection into high school types, the authors collect construction dates of the VHSs at the town level and use various measures of VHS availability in the town by the age of 13 as instrumental variables.FindingsThe first-stage estimates suggest that the availability of VHS does not affect the overall high school graduation rates, but generates a substitution from GHS to VHS. The OLS estimates yield the result that individuals with a VHS degree are around 5 percentage points more likely to be employed compared to those with a GHS degree. When the authors use measures of VHS availability as instruments, they still find positive and statistically significant effect of VHS degree on employment likelihood relative to GHS degree. However, once they include town-level controls or town fixed effects, IV estimates get much smaller and become statistically insignificant.Originality/valueThe authorsconclude that, although VHS construction generates a substitution from GHS to VHS education, this substitution is not transformed into increased employment rates in a statistically significant way. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Manpower Emerald Publishing

Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?

Torun, Huzeyfe; Tumen, Semih
International Journal of Manpower , Volume 40 (8): 25 – Oct 16, 2019
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0143-7720
DOI
10.1108/ijm-11-2017-0314
Publisher site
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the causal effect of vocational high school (VHS) education on employment likelihood relative to general high school (GHS) education in Turkey using Census data.Design/methodology/approachTo address non-random selection into high school types, the authors collect construction dates of the VHSs at the town level and use various measures of VHS availability in the town by the age of 13 as instrumental variables.FindingsThe first-stage estimates suggest that the availability of VHS does not affect the overall high school graduation rates, but generates a substitution from GHS to VHS. The OLS estimates yield the result that individuals with a VHS degree are around 5 percentage points more likely to be employed compared to those with a GHS degree. When the authors use measures of VHS availability as instruments, they still find positive and statistically significant effect of VHS degree on employment likelihood relative to GHS degree. However, once they include town-level controls or town fixed effects, IV estimates get much smaller and become statistically insignificant.Originality/valueThe authorsconclude that, although VHS construction generates a substitution from GHS to VHS education, this substitution is not transformed into increased employment rates in a statistically significant way.

Journal

International Journal of Manpower – Emerald Publishing

Published: Oct 16, 2019

Keywords: Employment; Instrumental variables; School construction; Vocational high school education; C26; I21; J21; J24

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