Determinación del Pago mínimo definitivo

Tertiary education bolsters the prospect of being employed in managerial,

professional and technical occupations. To assess the extent to which tertiary education increases opportunities for upward mobility, we conduct weighted logit regressions estimating the effects of various factors on the probability of attaining these upper level jobs114 (See Appendix Tables 4-1 to 4-3). We specify age, gender, education, occupation, area type (urban/rural), location (state), and industry as explanatory variables. Compared to other determinants, higher education exerts the most substantial effects on the

probability of being employed at the upper rungs of the occupational ladder. Having a degree most substantially enhances the chances of attaining professional jobs, and makes a large but a lesser impact on managerial jobs, while it decreases the prospect of

employment as a technician.

These results are not surprising, given the relatively higher reliance in professional work on formal knowledge and specific skills, and the wider range of characteristics we can expect of our broad category of managers, which spans working proprietors to business executives. A degree impacts negatively on the probability of employment in technical occupations, where that generally represents over-qualification. Diplomas raise the probability of employment in all three groups, most of all in technical occupations, in accordance with the suitability of qualification with job requirement, followed by

managerial and professional occupations.

114

Choice of logit and probit models in this chapter is driven by practical considerations. In the Stata statistical program, we find that probability weights could only be applied to a logit model, while conversion of estimated coefficients into marginal effects – i.e. the effect of a change in the independent variable on the probability of the dependent variable occurring – was simpler and

More pertinent to this study is whether these figures display patterns of change over time. Figure 4-1 exhibits effects of having either a diploma or a degree on the probability of being employed in the three targeted occupation groups, relative to a person with complete secondary schooling115. The most substantial and consistent change occurs in the relationship between degree qualification and professional employment. A degree holder was 14.5 percent more likely, relative to one with secondary schooling, to be employed as a professional in 1995, and 25.4 percent in 2002. This coefficient dips to 21.9 percent in 2004, but overall we may perceive an upward trend. Having a degree raises the probability of being employed in managerial occupations by 9.2 percent in 1995, rising to 21.9 percent in 2002, then falling to 15.0 percent in 2004. This decline between 2002 and 2004 is more substantial than that of professional employment, although, over 1995-2004 the net change again remains positive. Over 1995-2004, the coefficient on diploma increases moderately but steadily for all occupation groups. We take special note of technicians, given that pre-university tertiary education is most germane to technical jobs (we should also note that this category includes associate professional work such as primary school teaching). Diploma-holders see an increase in probability of being employed as a technician from 9.0 percent in 1995 to 12.4 percent in 2002, followed also by a slide to 10.7 percent in 2004.

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We have assumed that the determinants of earnings also determine occupational attainment, hence we do not specify a selection model in these equations. The reasons for not adopting Heckman procedures are explained later in this chapter with regard to our earnings regressions,

Figure 4-1. Malaysia: Effect of tertiary education on probability of attaining a managerial, professional, or technical job (per complete secondary school)

-10% -5% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 1995 1997 1999 2002 2004 Degree: manager Degree: professional Degree: technician Diploma: manager Diploma: professional Diploma: technician

Source: Household Income Survey.

Tertiary education is broadly becoming more consequential for accessing the upper regions of the labor market. The expansion of tertiary education in Malaysia would be expected to facilitate Bumiputera entry into occupations where they have been previously under-represented, provided degrees and diplomas are of comparable content and quality compared to non-Bumiputera graduates and no negative discrimination prevails against Bumiputera labor market participants. We recall from Chapter 3 that Malaysian higher education burgeoned after the mid-1990s, especially over 1995-2000 when enrollment in degree programs in public universities grew by 17.7 percent per year (See Table 3-1). This development occurred across racial groups, but at a slightly faster rate among Bumiputera. Between 1995 and 2004, the average annual growth of tertiary educated labor force participants was 9.3 percent for Bumiputera, 7.6 percent for Chinese, and 8.5 percent for Indians116. However, official data indicate that the momentum of affirmative

action – in terms of Bumiputera entry into managerial and professional levels – waned since the mid-1990s. The share of Bumiputera among managers and professionals increased at a slower rate post-1995 compared to preceding periods, indeed, it remained static between 1995-2000 and 2000-2005, based on official statistics (See Tables 3-7 and 3-8). These findings suggest that qualitative variations in tertiary education may be an increasingly important factor in upward occupational mobility.

Our findings are corroborated by probit regressions on data from the 2000 Malaysian Population Census (Table 4-1). This dataset contains race variables, permitting us to test whether identifying with a racial group has any independent effect on the probability of attaining a job in the targeted occupation groups. Parallel to the above results from the HIS data, tertiary education exerts the largest impact on the prospects of employment in management, professional and technical jobs. The coefficients on our race variables, representing the change in probability compared to Bumiputera, are relatively small in magnitude, and in a few cases are not statistically significant. The most sizable

coefficients pertain to the greater likelihood that Chinese will work in management and Indians in technical jobs – respectively, 2.3 percent and 1.6 percent.

Table 4-1. Malaysia: Probit regression for attaining a managerial or highly-skilled job, 2000.

Manager Professional Technician

Coeff. z-stat Coeff. z-stat Coeff. z-stat

Age 0.53* 25.1 0.03** 2.2 0.48* 13.3 Age squared 0.00* -16.7 0.00* -2.4 -0.01* -11.7 Female -1.83* -19.8 -0.19* -3.5 -1.66* -11.7 0-8 yrs schooling -2.78* -25.3 -1.30* -14.8 -9.72* -53.4 9-10 yrs schooling -1.49* -13.3 -0.94* -11.8 -4.93* -31.0 13 yrs schooling 2.89* 9.9 3.36* 17.8 6.49* 16.7 Diploma 5.97* 23.6 9.95* 50.6 12.39* 37.8 Degree 13.18* 47.0 32.22* 101.4 -3.62* -17.6 Urban 0.52* 4.4 0.27* 3.8 0.99* 5.8 Chinese 2.33* 21.5 0.51* 8.1 0.07 0.4 Indian -0.12 -0.7 0.52* 4.8 1.59* 6.1 Pseudo R-squared 0.197 0.415 0.183 Obs. 159,589 159,589 159,589

Source: 2 percent tape of the 2000 Population Census.

Notes: Coefficients denote percentage point change in the probability of attaining the specified occupation;

*Statistically significant at 1% level, ** Statistically significant at 5% level; Reference groups: schooling: 11 years, race: Malay; Regressions control for

state and industry.

These results indicate that, in the labor market as a whole, race only marginally accounts for differences in the prospect of getting employed in occupations targeted by affirmative action, after controlling for other factors. Bumiputera identity corresponds with only a slight disadvantage, when averaged over the national workforce. These findings impute much greater impact to tertiary education and relative unimportance to racial identity as determinants of attaining upper-level occupations. This result is not surprising, considering that racial representation is somewhat disproportionate among managers but fairly proportionate among professionals and technicians (See Table 3-8).

However, analysis of the job attainment process at this aggregated level inadequately captures the transition from tertiary education to the upper occupational strata in the

occupational mobility specifically among tertiary educated workers. The next steps in our enquiry, therefore, consider whether tertiary graduates of different races vary in their capacity to attain management or professional positions, whether differences in tertiary education quality affect job attainment prospects, and whether these processes differ across private and public sectors.