Does school type matter for future earnings? Evidence from public and private school attendance

Piya Chatterjee; Deepraj Mukherjee

Article Details

Research Article Volume 12 Issue 02

Does school type matter for future earnings? Evidence from public and private school attendance

Piya Chatterjee • Deepraj Mukherjee

Published: 22 Jun 2026 Issue:Volume 12 Issue 02 Aug 2026 Author details below

Deepraj Mukherjee

Kent State University, USA

Schooling Choices Public Schools Private Schools Demography Human Capital Wage Differential

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The present research examined the return to schooling (Public and Private schools) in the census region of the East South-Central Division of the United States. The demographic diversity of this region is the primary reason for its selection. The functional form has specified wage as the log-linear function of school attendance, controlling for gender, race, work experience, occupation status, and educational attainment. We followed the extant literature to include a few socioeconomic variables. The article has used 2020 sample data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series to estimate the parameter coefficients. The results show that private schools yield a higher return regarding subsequent wage earnings. Further, the wage differential between private school & public school is higher for African Americans than for Caucasian Americans; similarly, the same differential is higher among females and males. We differed from the earlier studies in choosing a simplistic qualitative variable of schooling choice. Rather than looking into more school-specific details like the student-teacher ratio, the relative salary of teachers, and the length of school terms on the estimates of the return to education, we have considered the choice of schooling (public school versus private school) as the critical quality parameter

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Published 22 Jun 2026

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Chatterjee, P. & Mukherjee, D.. (-0001). Does school type matter for future earnings? Evidence from public and private school attendance. International Journal of Higher Education Management, Volume 12 Issue 02.

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APA

Chatterjee, P. & Mukherjee, D.. (-0001). Does school type matter for future earnings? Evidence from public and private school attendance. International Journal of Higher Education Management, Volume 12 Issue 02.

MLA

Chatterjee, Piya, and Deepraj Mukherjee. "Does school type matter for future earnings? Evidence from public and private school attendance." International Journal of Higher Education Management, Volume 12 Issue 02, -0001.

Chicago

Piya Chatterjee and Deepraj Mukherjee. "Does school type matter for future earnings? Evidence from public and private school attendance." International Journal of Higher Education Management Volume 12 Issue 02 (30 Nov -0001).

Harvard

Chatterjee, P. & Mukherjee, D. (-0001) Does school type matter for future earnings? Evidence from public and private school attendance. International Journal of Higher Education Management, Volume 12 Issue 02

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