Tertiary education for all and wage inequality: policy insights from quantile regression

PurposeThe aim is to assess how a policy of tertiary education for all affects the shape of the unconditional earnings distribution.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses the quantile-regression literature looking at the link between education and wage inequality, also proving new evidence based on unconditional quantile regressions.FindingsThe findings support the idea that a policy of tertiary education for all increases the overall level of wage inequality.Research limitations/implicationsThe research has implications for public policy and administration. Among the limitations, the paper does not deal with distributional aspects related to other outcomes (e.g. health outcomes) of the policy of interest.Practical implicationsThe analysis highlights a series of potential government interventions aimed at reducing the wage-inequality externalities of the policy of interest.Social implicationsA policy of tertiary education for all, by itself, is not useful to fight wage inequality.Originality/valueThis paper belongs to the small group of studies using unconditional quantile regressions to study the link between education and wage inequality. It is the first study specifically looking at the distributional effects of a policy of tertiary education for all.