Abstract:

Micro-econometric methods are used to estimate the individual return rate from China education.In the estimation,the inconsistency between the results estimated by the ordinal least square method and by the conven-tional instrument variable estimator is verified,on the basis of the selection bias and the heterogeneity of samples.Moreover,by using Heckman selection model considering the sample selection bias and the heterogeneity,this pa-per introduces a new “famous university effect” variable to show the effect of educational quality on the wages of graduated students.The result suggests that,compared with those in 1990’s,the return rate from China education in the labor markets of China is greatly improved at present.

Key words: educational quality, Mincerian return rate, micro-econometric model, sample selection bias, hetero-geneity