RETURNS TO EDUCATION - TAKING ACCOUNT OF EMPLOYERS PERCEPTIONS AND USE OF EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS

In examining labour-market returns to educational performance it is ne cessary to understand the way in which those actors who govern access to such returns-namely employers-perceive and utilize measures of perf ormance. We argue that this will be responsive to institutional featur es of the educational system and the labour market and the relationshi p between them. We illustrate our case through an examination of the w ay in which Irish employers make use of educational credentials in dec iding which school leavers to employ and how much to pay them. We sugg est that failure to take account of employers' perceptions and interpr etations of educational qualifications is likely to distort our unders tanding of the way in which educational attainment is rewarded in the labour market and how this can vary between sectors within a country a nd between countries whose institutional arrangements are different.