Higher education, employment and earnings in Britain

Richard Blundell
Lorraine Dearden
Alissa Goodman
Howard Reed

Published on 1 May 1997

It is widely accepted that an accurate assessment of the extent to which graduates benefit from higher education is crucial for the effective development of policy in this area. For the first time in the UK, this report examines two dimensions of labour market success (employment and wages) in the early 1990s for a group of 33-year-olds who undertook higher education and compares their performance with a similarly-aged group who obtained at least one (and alternatively at least two) A level qualifications but did not proceed into higher education.

It is widely accepted that an accurate assessment of the extent to which graduates benefit from higher education is crucial for the effective development of policy in this area. For the first time in the UK, this report examines two dimensions of labour market success (employment and wages) in the early 1990s for a group of 33-year-olds who undertook higher education and compares their performance with a similarly-aged group who obtained at least one (and alternatively at least two) A level qualifications but did not proceed into higher education.

Authors

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Lorraine Dearden

Richard Blundell

Richard Blundell

CPP Co-Director

Richard is Co-Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) and Senior Research Fellow at IFS.

Alissa Goodman

Research Fellow University College London

Alissa is an IFS Research Fellow and a Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the UCL Institute of Education.

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Howard Reed