The Distributive Effects of Education: an Unconditional Quantile Regression Approach

Javier Alejo; Maria Florencia Gabrielli; Walter Sosa-Escudero

doi:10.4067/S0718-88702014000100003

Authors

Javier Alejo Universidad Nacional de La Plata and CEDLAS
Maria Florencia Gabrielli Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and CONICET
Walter Sosa-Escudero Universidad de San Andrés and CONICET

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-88702014000100003

Keywords:

Unconditional quantile regression, income inequality, education, Argentina

Abstract

We use recent unconditional quantile regression methods (UQR) to study the distributive effects of education in Argentina. Standard methods usually focus on mean effects, or explore distributive effects by either making stringent modeling assumptions, and/or through counter- factual decompositions that require several temporal observations. An empirical case shows the flexibility and usefulness of UQR methods. Our application for the case of Argentina shows that education contributed positively to increased inequality in Argentina, mostly due to the effect of strongly heterogeneous effects of education on earnings.

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References

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