Changes in the returns to education at entry into the labour market in West Germany

Becker, Rolf; Blossfeld, Hans-Peter (2021). Changes in the returns to education at entry into the labour market in West Germany. Longitudinal and life course studies, 13(1), pp. 61-86. Bristol University Press 10.1332/175795921X16197756998006

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This article studies to what extent societal processes such as educational expansion, economic modernisation and business cycles have affected the returns to educational certificates of women and men entering the labour market in West Germany. Using longitudinal data, long-term changes in cohort- and period-specific effects on socio-economic status attainment at entry into the labour market are investigated between 1945 and 2008. Analyses demonstrate that the entrants’ average socio-economic prestige scores have clearly risen in the process of modernisation. Despite educational expansion, increasing skill demands for highly qualified graduates resulted in rising rates of returns for the most highly educated entrants across birth cohorts. While educational expansion and economic modernisation have boosted socio-economic returns at entry into the labour market for women from all educational levels, it has not been the case for men with the lowest levels of education. Both educational expansion and rising skill requirements of occupations led to an increasing polarisation of inequality between tertiary educated labour-market entrants and less-qualified school leavers. Educational expansion in West Germany has therefore never exceeded the occupational skill demands at entry into the labour market.

Key messages:
Due to the upgrading of the occupational job structure, human capital investments have not become devaluated in the course of rapid educational expansion across cohorts in Germany.
The opposite in true: young people who have attained higher education, intermediate general or vocational education in Germany have received even higher job returns to their educational investments at labour-market entry and during their later job career.
In particular, young qualified German women have benefited from the interrelated changes of educational expansion, sectoral tertiarisation and occupational upgrading.
German males who have left the school system without any educational certificate or certified vocational training might be called the losers of educational expansion and occupational upgrading. Their job opportunities have worsened drastically in the recent period.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Education > Sociology of Education
UniBE Contributor:	Becker, Rolf
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 370 Education
ISSN:	1757-9597
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Language:	English
Submitter:	Rolf Becker
Date Deposited:	23 Jul 2021 08:47
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 15:51
Publisher DOI:	10.1332/175795921X16197756998006
Uncontrolled Keywords:	returns to education • labour-market entry • modernisation • business cycle • German Life History Study
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/156883