Education performance in Ecuador

Abstract

The relationship between education and income, established by the human capital theory, proposes to treat education as one of the main determinants of the individuals´ level of income. However, although the theory confirms that education offers an advantage to obtain higher incomes, starting from the 21st century, hypotheses that indicate diminishing returns in education have been discussed. Under this context, the objective of the present study is to analyze the empirical relationship between the salaried people income and education levels, as well as the evolution of the educational return for the period 2007-2017 in Ecuador. For its demonstration, cross-sectional models were used for each year, using data from the national employment, unemployment and underemployment survey (ENEMDU) based on the Mincer equation, estimated using the sample design application. In this scenario, the results confirm the advantage that education offers in obtaining income, however, it is concluded that this advantage presents a decreasing behavior.