Abstract
This article uses individual data on 10,000 higher education students and 5,000 graduates in the Philippines in 1977 to assess theex ante student perceptions of the labour market against actual labour market outcomes. A comparison of mean expected and actual earnings by various sample characteristics reveals a high degree of realism from the students' viewpoint. Individual self-assessed foregone earnings are used to estimate theex ante returns to higher education and to investment in particular fields of specialization. The expected returns are close to the actual returns. Expected and actual waiting time to first job are of a short duration and a sharply declining function of age. Family background and college performance strongly influence the expected and actual labour market outcomes. The policy implications of the results are briefly discussed.
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Psacharopoulos, G., Sanyal, B. Student expectations and labour market performance: The case of the Philippines. High Educ 10, 449–472 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01676926
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01676926