Earnings of university dropouts across Europe
Refereed Journal // 2025This paper investigates relative earnings of individuals leaving tertiary education without a degree across 18 European countries employing survey data on adult workers. We find that, on average, university dropouts earn 8% more than those never enrolling into tertiary education, but 20% less than university graduates. Moreover, university dropouts appear to have slightly better employment chances than other upper secondary graduates, while they have a significantly lower employment probability than those graduating from tertiary education. However, we document substantial heterogeneity across countries concerning whether university attendance without completion is rewarded in the labour market.