Schooling is Associated not only with Long-run Wages, but also with Wage Risks and Disability Risks: The Pakistani Experience.

Abstract

Many studies document significantly positive associations between schooling attainment and wages in developing countries. But when individuals enter occupations subsequent to completing their schooling, they not only face an expected work-life path of wages, but a number of other occupational characteristics, including wage risks and disability risks, for which there may be compensating wage differentials. This study examines the relations between schooling on one hand and mean wages and these two types of risks on the other hand, based on 77,685 individuals in the labour force as recorded in six Labour Force Surveys of Pakistan. The results suggest that schooling is positively associated with mean total wages and wage rates, but has different associations with these two types of risks: Disability risks decline as schooling increases but wage risks, and even more, wage rate risks increase as schooling increases. The schooling-wage risks relation, but not the schooling-disability risks relation, is consistent with there being compensating differentials. JEL classification: J31, J28, O53 Keywords: Wages, Risks, Labour Markets, Job Disabilities, Compensating Differentials, Developing Country, Schooling