Gender and long-term trends in educational attainment, income and returns to education in Norway

This study addresses the economic returns to education among men and women in Norway, during five decades of changing and widening gender disparities in educational attainment. We ask how gender differences in educational attainment and returns have contributed to change and persistence in the gender income gap, and whether young men have started trailing behind due to women’s relative gains in higher education. While rising real incomes have contributed to a narrowing relative income gap, the absolute gap has decreased more slowly. In the past decade, both real incomes and the gender income gap have stagnated. Our results show that while both men and women in Norway have increased their education levels, women’s gains have been mainly in higher education, while men’s gains have disproportionately been in vocational upper secondary education. Contrary to the situation in the US and other liberal market economies, income growth among men with vocational education in Norway has recently outpaced every other group, resulting in a decreasing college premium, particularly among men. Women’s relative gains in higher education are partly offset by their lower incomes at all education levels, and the relatively strong income growth among men with vocational degrees. Decomposition analyses confirm these patterns.