Abstract:
More selective universities are presumably better in quality and expected
to provide better labour market outcomes for their graduates – returns
premia. However, various empirical applications have found that part of
it should be attributed to selectivity. Using the data on recent higher
education graduates’ entry salaries with a fuzzy regression discontinuity
design, this study reveals no apparent difference in the returns one
gains by attending more selective and relatively better-funded national
universities as opposed to other public HEIs in Kazakhstan, at least
during the first year in employment, which may potentially call for a
reconsideration of the associated policies.
