%0 Report
        %A Pereira, Pedro T.
%A Martins, Pedro S.
        %T Does Education Reduce Wage Inequality? Quantile Regressions Evidence from Fifteen European Countries
        %D 2000
        %8 2000 Feb
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 120
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp120
        %X We address the impact of education upon wage inequality by drawing on evidence from fifteen European countries, during a period ranging between 1980 and 1995. We focus on within-educational-levels wage inequality by estimating quantile regressions of Mincer equations and analysing the differences in returns to education across the wage distribution and across time. Four different patterns emerge: 1) a positive and increasing contribution of education upon within-levels wage inequality -the case of Portugal; 2) a positive but stable role of education in terms of inequality - Austria, Finland, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK; 3) a neutral role - Denmark and Italy; and 4) a negative impact - Germany and Greece. We thus find that in most countries dispersion in earnings increases with educational levels and that education is a risky investment. These results suggest a positive interaction between schooling and ability with respect to earnings.
        %K education systems
%K ability
%K quantile regressions
%K labour-market institutions
%K Returns to education
%K earnings inequality