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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

higher education, employment, Armenia, market economy

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Economics

Abstract

This paper employs microdata from the 2001 Armenian National Census to consider how varying levels of higher education affect the likelihood that an individual is employed in Armenia. The analysis concludes that the effect of incomplete undergraduate education on employment status is not statistically different from the effect of terminating one’s education after graduating high school. I consider several theoretical improvements on the standard probit and logit models using an instrumental variables approach and flexible distributions. Armenia is an interesting case study of economic contrasts. While Armenia’s double-digit economic growth suggests that it is adapting to the new market economy, some sources put Armenia’s unemployment rate as recently as 2004 at a staggering 31.4%. Higher education does not appear to help with mobility: a 2001 UNDP report classified as poor 50% of Armenians with higher education. Quantifying the lack of benefits of college education should motivate further reform to prepare Armenian students for specialized employment opportunities upon graduation.

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