Non-university Tertiary Education for the Reduction of Wage Inequality and Poverty

Non-university tertiary education (ESNU for its acronym in Spanish), comprising technical and technological programs, may be a policy option to reduce the wage gap, and avoid wealth concentration. Using pool type estimates of the Mincer equation for the years 2007-2011 and breaking down income by factor components, taking as input the income equation, we find that the technical and technological education has a premium higher than secondary education of 19.5%. In addition, the growth rate of this premium between 2007 and 2011 was higher 0.4% than college education. Likewise, ESNU increases the probability of employment when compared to having no degree or having college education by 1.7% and 0.2% respectively. This type of education mainly benefits women, youth and the population in the lower socioeconomic strata.