TY  - RPRT
A1  - Wahrenburg, Mark
A1  - Weldi, Martin
T1  - Return on investment in higher education : evidence for different subjects, degrees and gender in Germany
N2  - Applying an investment perspective to higher education, the paper presents detailed empirical evidence on the rate of return to higher education and its determinants. Employing a sample of 17,180 higher education graduates derived from the German Labor Force Survey 2004, we show considerable variation in the rates of return to higher education across the different subjects, with some subjects on average not representing attractive private investments from an economic point of view. We find that the decision what to study is worth several hundred thousand Euros. Applying regression analysis, we find gender- and degree-specific return advantages only in certain subjects. Comparing the return of an investment in higher education and the production cost of higher education, we show that more expensive subjects (apart from Medicine) yield a lower return. When considering the cost of study, the overall order of attractiveness of the different forms of education remains stable, but the investment in further subjects is no longer clearly attractive. Keywords: Returns to Education, Human Capital, Higher Education Earnings Capacity.
KW  - Returns to Education
KW  - Human Capital
KW  - Higher Education Earnings Capacity
Y1  - 2007
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/6997
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-70241
IS  - Version: September, 11 2007
CY  - [Frankfurt am Main]
ER  -