Estimating the effect of lifelong learning on women’s earnings using a switching model

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of lifelong learning on women’s employment and wages in the United Kingdom. Using data from the British Household Panel
Survey, a variant of the mover-stayer model is developed in which hourly wages are either taken from a stationary distribution (movers) or are closely related
to the hourly wage one year earlier (stayers). The model allows for individual-specific effects through the inclusions of a fixed number of discrete mass points
and also addresses the potential endogeneity of lifelong learning decisions. Once employment effects are taken into account, all forms of lifelong learning show
substantial returns.