The Relation between Vocational Training in High School and Economic Outcomes

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships between various economic outcomes and vocational training in high school for those who have completed exactly twelve years of schooling. The authors attempt to determine whether the findings remain robust when different surveys and time periods of analysis, different measures of the quality and kind of vocational training, and other variations in specifications are used.

Using some samples with particular specifications, the authors find evidence of positive returns to vocational schooling. For white females enrolled in business programs the evidence is strongest. For white males the evidence is much weaker, but the authors do find that trade and industry courses may have a positive influence on subsequent yearly earnings. Sample sizes for minorities are small, and so the findings for them remain unclear. Within specific sex and race groups the findings vary, sometimes widely, depending on the samples, time periods, and dependent variables used and on the specification of the estimating equation.