RETURNS TO EDUCATION AND ROLE OF OVEREDUCATION IN UKRAINE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

The growing impact of human capital and education on economic development is driving up the returns to education in most countries in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The empirical results are based on microdata from the enterprise surveys. The State Statistics Service of Ukraine has conducted a study on the level of wages of employees by gender, age, education and occupational categories. The results show that returns to education in Ukraine are also gradually increasing. In 2012, the return was 8.7%, in 2016 it was 7.8% and in 2020 it was 9.2% for each additional year of study (8.6% on average). However, this indicator remains below the average for most countries in the Central and Eastern Europe. The wage premium for each additional year of university education in Ukraine was 11.8% in 2012, 10.4% in 2016 and 11.7% in 2020. A review of the impact of various factors (work experience, years of education, level of education, gender, place of residence, size of the enterprise) on remuneration levels reveals that the largest positive impact on earnings is associated with complete university education, a large enterprise size and place of residence in the capital city.