敎育의 投資收益率 分析

The Rate of Return of Investment in Education in Korea

The primary purpose of this study is to estimate the rate of return of investment in education using the Mincerian human capital earnings model along with an alternative approach implied by the signaling and screening hypothesis. The data used are taken form the 1989 Report on Occupational Wage Survey tape. The major findings of the paper are as follows. The estimated results indicate that, compared to the screening hypothesis, the human capital theory seems to have greater explanatory powers in ex planning the structure of recent earnings in Korea. To be more specific, the calculated marginal rate of return tends to be higher the higher the level of schooling. The marginal rates ranged from 10.4% for junior high school graduates to 16.3% for colledge degree holders, respectively. The study also reveals that the differentials in the marginal rates have narrowed a great deal, compared to those of previous studies. The smaller gap seems to reflect the egalitarian effect of education associated with greater expansion in the opportunities for colledge education in the early 1980s, together with a record high growth of the national economy experienced in the late 1980s.