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Using 1990 US census data, the present paper examines the relationship between overeducation and earnings. The paper updates previous findings and then focuses on those most likely to be overeducated - individuals with post-college schooling. It is hypothesised that specific occupations that require college education may be flexible in their ability to utilise the surplus human capital of the employees. Being overeducated is shown to increase the wages of men working at a job that requires a bachelor's degree. The results are compared with findings in Canada and the UK. Additionally, overeducation is shown to contribute to the gender wage gap.

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There is an absence of empirical evidence on returns to education in Singapore for nearly 30 years, mainly because of lack of publicly available data. The present study attempts to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between education and earnings in Singapore and to link the results of the study to research evidence from 30 years ago, as well as relate the results to those in the international literature. Recent Labor Force Survey data are used to obtain evidence and update older estimates of the private returns to investment in formal and technical/vocational education from different levels and types of schooling in Singapore. Some of the results confirm earlier patterns from other country studies, while other results make Singapore a world outlier, with very high private returns to schooling (comparable with estimates from lower-middle income countries) in relation to Singapore's advanced stage of development and per-capita income.

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In the present paper, we examine the relationship between returns to education and family background. The analysis uses samples of male and female workers drawn from the Spanish Survey on Class Structure. The results for males show a positive relationship between parents' education (or occupation) and returns to schooling. The evidence for females is more complicated. Least-squares estimates suggest a negative relationship, while two-step Heckman's estimates (correcting for sample selection) generate results closer to those obtained for males.

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The notion that the knowledge and skills embodied in individuals contribute to the creation of economic and social benefits is not a new concept. But in practice little is known about the extent and relative influence of how different learning activities contribute to the formation of one's knowledge and skills, and in turn their relative influence in generating different kinds of benefits. Studies either focus on one form of learning or the other, and for the most part, they tend to focus on indicators of formal education. To improve the understanding of how education and learning lead to the creation of economic and social benefits, a comprehensive approach drawing on all the potential sources of knowledge and skills should be applied. Accordingly, the primary objective of the present article is to measure the relative influence of engaging in various learning activities - spanning the 'life-wide' spectrum of learning - on economic and social benefits. The study presents a conceptual framework and uses data from the Canadian Adult Literacy Survey to estimate corresponding structural models. The findings provide support for the hypothesis formulated; namely, that the relationship between formal education and economic and social outcomes is complex, with confounding effects. The results indicate that different types of learning activities taken for different reasons lead to different kinds of benefits. The latter finding suggests a potential trade-off between attaining economic and social benefits through different types of learning activities that are taken for either job-related or personal interest-related reasons. The article concludes that further in-depth analyses are required to improve the understanding of the complex relationship between various learning activities and the benefits they generate.

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The vocational education and training (VET) sector in Victoria went through some significant changes between 1993 and 1998. These changes included amalgamation of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes and the creation of a market for the provision of part of the state-funded VET, in which public and private providers competed. At the same time, the demand for training shifted from the declining manufacturing industry to the service and information technology industries. Parallel to these changes, the TAFE workforce also went through some significant restructuring. The participation of women increased, and for the first time in 1995 they were in the majority. Part-time employment grew sharply but full-time employment, mainly male, declined. Non-tenured, as either contract or sessional (casual), positions also increased quite sharply, but this trend varied across institutes.

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