Internal rates of return to higher education for non-quitters and the role of female higher education

This paper computes internal rates of return to higher education using Japanese data for those who continued to work for the same firm. This enables a comparison between female and male rates of return under more equal ground than usual. The results show that the rates of return to university education are higher for women than for men. However, those to female junior college education are quite low especially recently, though the usual computation method generates high rates. The backgrounds for these facts and the recent rapid increase in the rate of female enrollment in university are discussed.