Private vs. Public Sector Returns to Human Capital in Finland Available to Purchase

A common assertion, strongly supported by country‐specific empirical evidence, is that individual returns to investment in human capital change slowly over time. The research results reported in this paper indicate that this is not necessarily the outcome if the economy, like the Finnish one at the turn of the decade (1980/90), undergoes rapid shifts in the activity level coupled with increasing turbulence in the labour market. Not surprisingly, the changes in wage conditions are stronger within the private sector. Less expected is perhaps the finding of highly differing effects among men and women employed in the same sector.