The NERI Seminar 'Education across the Island of Ireland: differences in educational outcomes, earnings, and intergenerational mobility' took place on Thursday 26 January 2023 at 15:30. It was also run as a live streamed event.
The details are as follows:
Title: 'Education across the Island of Ireland: differences in educational outcomes, earnings, and intergenerational mobility'
Speakers: Dr. Anne Devlin and Professor Seamus Mc Guinness, ESRI
Date: Thursday 26 January 2023
Details of seminar:
Dr. Anne Devlin and Professor Seamus Mc Guinness, ESRI presented on their paper on education across the island of Ireland. Subsequently, a discussion will be open to the floor where the chairperson, Gerry Murphy, ICTU Assistant General Secretary presented questions to Dr. Devlin and Professor McGuinness. See presentation attached below.
Abstract:
This paper builds upon their earlier study on educational differences across Ireland, North and South (Smyth et al., 2022), to explore in more detail the relationship between educational attainment, social background, and wages.
In so doing, they find evidence of substantial wage premia across all qualification levels in Ireland relative to Northern Ireland. This wage advantage in Ireland is widespread and not merely driven by higher returns to professional occupations or FDI employment which is how higher wages in Ireland are usually explained.
The mean wage gap between the regions was 27 per cent in 2014 in favour of Ireland, with approximately 25 per cent of this difference explained by lower levels of educational attainment in Northern Ireland.
Consistent with their previous study, they again find that levels of educational attainment (early school leaving) are substantially lower (higher) in Northern Ireland relative to Ireland, with evidence also of differences in how the education level of parents affects off-springs’ attainment.
The authors conclude that the continued use of academic selection in Northern Ireland is likely to be a contributory factor in limiting the extent to which the Northern Irish educational system facilitates intergenerational educational mobility.
Biographies for presenters:
Dr. Anne Devlin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Economic Analysis Division having joined the ESRI in December 2020. Her research interests include labour economics and the economics of disability as well as a particular interest in economic inactivity in Ireland, North and South.
Anne completed her PhD in Economics at Queen’s University Belfast in June 2021. Her PhD research investigated the high levels of disability in Northern Ireland and whether there is a relationship with the ‘Troubles’. During her doctoral studies Anne held a research internship at the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service at Stormont. Anne also holds a BSc in Economics and an MSc in Management from Ulster University. Prior to joining the Institute Anne was employed as a Teaching Fellow at Ulster University’s Business School.
Seamus McGuinness is a Research Professor and the Research Area Co-ordinator for labour market research at the Economic and Social Research Institute. Prior to joining the Institute, he held posts at Queens University Belfast, the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic & Social Research (University of Melbourne). He obtained his PhD in Economics from Queens University Belfast in 2003.
Most of his published research has been in the areas of labour economics and the economics of education, he has a particular expertise in the areas of education and skill mismatches.
In addition to his work on the Irish labour market, he has also led a number of European labour studies involving numerous international research partners. Seamus is also a research fellow in the Institute of Labour Studies (IZA) in the University of Bonn and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National Institute for Labour Studies in Flinders University Australia. He is the designated expert on the Irish labour market in the European Commission’s European Employment and Policy Observatory (EEPO).