Economic Analysis of educational demands of the School of Economics programs: a choice model based on a binomial logit

Abstract

Se presenta un ana?lisis microecono?mico de la demanda de Educacio?n Superior de programas profesio- nales de Ciencias Econo?micas en la Universidad del Atla?ntico: Economi?a, Administracio?n de Empresas o Contaduri?a Pu?blica. Utilizando un modelo logit binomial, se intenta averiguar las condiciones de dicha eleccio?n.

Tanto el modelo estimado para Administracio?n de Empresas vs Economi?a como el de Contaduri?a Pu?- blica vs Economi?a explican las elecciones educativas de los jo?venes en funcio?n del tipo de alumno (estudiante a tiempo completo o estudiante-trabajador), nivel de estudios terminados de la madre y renta del padre. Adicionalmente, el modelo de Administracio?n de Empresas vs Economi?a explica dichas elecciones en funcio?n del status social, mientras el de Contaduri?a Pu?blica vs Economi?a lo hace en funcio?n de la ocupacio?n de la madre y la preferencia laboral.

Se confrontan las propuestas de Blaug (1976), que propone un modelo que considera que en la de- manda educativa prevalece el motivo consumo, frente a lo propuesto tradicionalmente en la teori?a del capital humano por Becker (1964) y Mincer (1958, 1974), que proponen la educacio?n como un bien de capital, donde los estudiantes demandan educacio?n en funcio?n de los retornos que esperan obtener a lo largo de sus vidas para recuperar su inversio?n.

Palabras clave: Eleccio?n de centro, Demanda educativa, Economi?a de la educacio?n, Capital humano.

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on a microeconomic analysis of scholar demands of Higher Education when high school students choose any of the Undergraduate Programs of the Economics School at Universidad del Atla?ntico: Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or Bach- elor’s degree in Accounting. A Binomial Logit Model is used in order to find out students’ reason to make such choices.

When building estimated models to know such reasons, for both “Business Administration vs. Eco- nomics” and “Accounting vs. Economics”, the measurement shows that student’s educational choices depends on the type of student (“full-time student” or “student and worker”), her / his mother’s edu- cational level and father’s income level. In addition, the estimated model for “Business Administration vs. Economics” explains these choices in terms of social status, while in the model for “Accounting vs. Economics” they depend on her / his mother’s occupation and his / her own occupational preferences. Blaug’s theoretical framework about the economic value of education, mainly associated with human capital and economics aspects of educational systems is compared with the Theory of Human Capital by Becker (1964) and Mincer (1958). Human capital corresponds to any stock of marketable skills of workers as a form of capital in which workers make a variety of investments.

Keywords: Choosing an institution, Scholar demand, Economic value of education, Human capital.