Title: The returns to field of study in the Turkish labour market: a pseudo-panel approach

Authors: Bilge Eriş Dereli

Addresses: Department of Economics, Marmara University, Goztepe Campus, Office No. 114 İstanbul, Turkey

Abstract: This study employs a pseudo-panel fixed-effects approach to estimate the returns to field of study in Turkey. Repeated cross sections of Turkish Labor Force Surveys between 2016-2019 are used. Year of birth and region are used as grouping variables. The results indicate significant earnings differences the across field of study when cohort-fixed effects are controlled. Relative to the base field, education sciences, there are higher returns to environmental sciences and mathematics and statistics and engineering and manufacturing and architecture and health and welfare. On the other hand, there are lower returns to social sciences and journalism. The earnings differences are insignificant for the fields art and humanities and languages and business administration and law and agriculture and veterinary. These findings are important both for an individual's subject choice at university and education policies targeting to allocate resources more effectively to tertiary education.

Keywords: returns to college major; pseudo-panel; Turkey.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2024.136491

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2024 Vol.27 No.2, pp.256 - 268

Received: 12 Jul 2021
Accepted: 09 Sep 2021
Published online: 05 Feb 2024 *

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