Education and earnings: examining the returns across regular, casual, and self-employed labour markets

This study examines the trends of returns to education in India using unit-level data from the National Periodic Labour Force Survey conducted in the years 2017–18, 2018–19, and 2019–20. Here, distinct estimates are derived from the mincerian wage equation using ordinary least square for three distinct categories of workers: regular, casual, and self-employed. The findings demonstrate substantial rise in returns to education corresponding to the level of education attained among regular workers, pointing to higher salaries for improved education over time due to more employment opportunities. Whereas casual and self-employed workers don’t seem to benefit much from education. This clearly indicates that interest of the Indian youth is more inclined towards regular jobs. However, if we have to make the economy grow for that we need to increase returns in casual and self-employed jobs so the dependency on regular jobs can be restrained. This will ultimately help us to bring employment in the hinterland of India. Result showcased that there is striking disparities across gender and locations. Men receive higher returns from education than women. Furthermore, returns to urban regions outpace those to rural regions.