Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may Earnings over the Life Course: General versus Vocational Education februAry 2017Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world's largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. IntroductionOne of the most striking differences between countries' educational systems lies in their emphases on vocational/specific and theoretical/general education. 1 In southern Europe, the US and the UK, modest shares of the student population attend vocational schools before age 18, whereas in other European countries (e.g., Austria, Germany, Slovakia, the Netherlands) students are tracked as early as age 10 or 12 and complete apprenticeships at the upper secondary level.These differences have historical reasons, but may also partially reflect our incomplete understanding of the expected relative returns of vocational and general education.There are two widespread theoretical views that, in combination, yield ambiguous long- In the short term, vocational education is assumed to facilitate the transition from school to work, especially for students who are less academically inclined. In the long term, vocational education also entails the risk that the demand for the student's particular skill decreases at a future point in time. General education, however, is assumed to enhance the ability to learn new skills and to make individuals less sensitive to long-term changes in labor demand. Krueger and Kumar (2004a, 2004b) argue that the greater emphasis on general skills in the US relative to Europe provides a comparative advantage for the US, as general skills enhan...

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In this paper we evaluate the effects of comprehensive adult education on wage earnings of long-term unemployed, an essentially unexplored issue. We use register data pertaining to a large sample of long-term unemployed in Sweden who enrolled in upper secondary comprehensive adult education. Estimates with propensity score matching indicate that more than one semester of study results in substantial increases in post program annual earnings for both males and females. According to our rough calculations, the social benefits of offering these individuals comprehensive education surpass the costs within five to seven years.