The effects of schooling choices on the return to education

Abstract

The present research looked at the return to schooling (Public and Private schools) in the census region of the East South-Central Division of the United States. The demographic diversity of this region is the primary reason for its selection. The functional form of return to schooling on education has the specified wage as the long-linear function of school attendance (in years), controlling for gender, race, work experience, occupation status, and educational attainment. We followed the extant literature to control a few socioeconomic variables. The article used 2020 sample data from Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) to estimate the parameter coefficients. The findings show private schools yield a higher return in terms of subsequent wage earnings compared to private schools. The results highlight a higher differential between private schools & public schools for Caucasian Americans over African Americans. Similarly, the differential is higher among females over males.