Research Paper 30: Estimating the effect of lifelong learning on women’s earnings using a switching model

Authors

Richard Dorsett, Silvia Lui and Martin Weale

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of lifelong learning on women’s employment and wages in the United Kingdom. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, a variant of the mover-stayer model is developed in which hourly wages are either taken from a stationary distribution (movers) or are closely related to the hourly wage one year earlier (stayers). The model allows for individualspecific effects through the inclusions of a fixed number of discrete mass points and also addresses the potential endogeneity of lifelong learning decisions. Once employment effects are taken into account, all forms of lifelong learning show substantial returns.