Returns to education: the Greek experience, 1988-1999

Abstract

The paper provides estimates of private rates of return to education in Greece derived from Mincerian-type earnings equations. The data come from the latest three household surveys of the country covering the 1988-1999 period. The empirical evidence suggests that: rates of return associated with female high school- and university graduates exceed the respective rates for male graduates; rates of return pertaining to tertiary education graduates are increasing over time, whereas the corresponding rates for secondary edu-cation graduates follow an inverted U-shaped pattern; and dropouts from any education degree end up with rates of return lower than the rates associated with the immediately preceding education level.