Before presenting estimates of the payoff to higher education, the question
is addressed as to whether prior AE has any bearing on the probability of com-
pleting four years of studies at university. In the Swedish educational system, a
Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree encompass three and four years of studies re-
spectively. Educations shorter than three years are somewhat difficult to assess
as these include dropouts from programs that are longer than three years. After
conditioning that a first registration in higher education should not occur later
than in 1997 (when individuals are 27 years old), the sample includes 88.9 per
cent of the enrolees in higher education until 2002. Table 9 displays results
from two versions of logit model estimates on the probability of completing
four years of university studies (as reported in SUN2003). Prior enrolment in
AE is first represented by a continuous variable of the number of credits in AE.
In a second version, the individuals with prior AE are associated with an indi-
cator variable of their interval number of credits attained. The results imply no
differences in the study achievements in tertiary education between males with
and without a prior AE. In contrast, females with 1-500 AE credits prior to
higher education show a significantly lower probability of completing four
years of higher studies.
34
IFAU - Does adult education at upper secondary level influence annual wage earnings?