Returns to education: updates for Malaysia

Abstract

This article provides updated returns to education estimates for Malaysia. Current returns as presented in international updates are 32.6 and 34.5 for the secondary and higher education levels. New estimates were obtained using data from the Malaysian Household Income Survey 1997, a nationally represented survey. The findings show that returns to education remain high and positive, in particular, the returns to the higher educational level, encompassing the pre-university qualification and higher education qualifications. Results also display marginal gross returns of 14.1 for those completing the upper secondary education level and 16.4 for those completing the higher education level for the overall sample. By gender, the marginal gross returns for males are 12.0 at the upper secondary level and 18.1 at the higher education level and for females, 15.7 and 16.4 respectively.