Public or private? The importance of upper secondary and higher education characteristics in the return to higher education

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/1980-5330/ea191785

Keywords:

education, panel data models, Brazil, higher education, return to education

Abstract

This paper tests the presence of short-term heterogeneities in return to tertiary education. It seeks to answer whether this return is higher for students who attended private high school and public university. To try to infer causality, panel data is used in a fixed-effects regression. It is estimated that earning an undergraduate degree has an impact of around 8% on income over a year. There is also evidence that this premium increases by 1,8 p.p. if the person has attended a private high school and a public university, which shows the existence of heterogeneous returns.

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Author Biographies

  • Matheus Gomes da Silva Leal, Getúlio Vargas Foundation

    Fundação Getúlio Vargas. E-mail: matheusgdsleal@gmail.com

  • Romero Cavalcanti Barreto da Rocha, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

    Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. E-mail: romero.rocha@ie.ufrj.br

    ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1240-0063

  • Daniel Duque, Norwegian School of Economics

    Norwegian School of Economics. E-mail: daniel.duque.econ@gmail.com

    ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7090-1224

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Published

2025-09-01

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 3 (2025)

Section

Papers

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How to Cite

Leal, M. G. da S., Rocha, R. C. B. da, & Duque, D. (2025). Public or private? The importance of upper secondary and higher education characteristics in the return to higher education. Economia Aplicada, 29(3), 271-303. https://doi.org/10.11606/1980-5330/ea191785