The impact of education on improving labour market outcomes in developing countries – evidence from Kosova

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in studying the relationship between education and its impacts on the labour market. While the relationship between education and wages has been extensively researched, the empirical evidence regarding employment opportunities remains poor. In this article, we examine the impact of education in improving labour market outcomes of working-age individuals in Kosova, emphasizing its role in the probability of employment. Our analysis is based on an extensive dataset compiled from Kosova Labour Force Survey for 2015, 2016 and 2017, which includes more than 75 thousand observations. Using the probit model, we analyse the impact of education on the probability of employment and labour force participation in Kosova. Our findings show that, relative to those with no formal education, the likelihood of being employed increases by 26.9% for individuals with primary education, while for those with secondary and tertiary education, the likelihood increases by 55 and 76.6%, respectively. We see these significant changes in employment opportunities due to education as significant returns to investment in education that have driven the increasing trends in educational enrolment in recent years.

KEYWORDS:

• Employment
• education
• wage
• developing countries
• Kosova

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mic Ukaj

Mic Ukaj has a PhD in economics, for 15 years he has been teaching at various universities in Kosovo. He has published a number of research papers on labor market, education, and migration. He has also participated in several local and international conferences. He has a long experience in research, being part of a local research institute. He has also served as vocational education consultant on a local level. He is married.

Avdullah Hoti

Avdullah Hoti teaches Macroeconomics, Labour Economics and Research Methods at the Faculty of Economy, University of Prishtina. He served in several professional and academic councils at home and abroad. He has published a number of research papers on labour market, economic development and transition, education, migration and remittances. He has reach experience in policy making as he has served in various positions at local and national level administration. He is married and has two sons, Ledion and Antian.

Rahmije Mustafa-Topxhiu

Rahmije Mustafa Topxhiu is a Professor of Statistics at the University of Pristina Faculty of Economics. She completed her doctoral studies in the field of local economic development at the University of Pristina Faculty of Economics. She has a number of publications in the field of development economics that have been published in international journals, and she has spoken at many international conferences. In addition to the publications, she is the author of two university textbooks, “Introduction to Statistics” and “Local Economic Development in the Context of the Market Economy.” She has worked on wide range professional projects in the field of local development and business for the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Enterprise Development Agency (EDA). She is also the Chair of the Statistical Council of Kosovo, and is engaged in several activities of the Kosovo Agency of Statistics.