Analysis on the Labor Market Performance of Local University Graduates and Regional Education Gap

지방대학 졸업자의 노동시장 성과와 지역별 교육격차

In terms of labor market accomplishments, such as income, size of the company, and the matching quality between one's job and college major (specialization), a very large discrepancy is observed between the graduates from colleges located in Seoul and those outside Seoul. But, when the department average score of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) at the time of college entrance is controlled for, the discrepancy is found to be reduced to a considerable degree. In the case of wage gap, at least two third can be explained by the SAT score gap. The remaining wage gap seems to reflect the characteristics of workplace. In other words, graduates with high SAT scores enter colleges located in Seoul and thus tend to find better jobs leading to earning differences. This result that confirms the importance of aptitude test scores suggests that in the labor market, one of the major reasons behind a lower accomplishment of the graduate from local colleges is due to a lower competitiveness of local colleges in attracting the brightest students. But, this should not be viewed as only an internal problem of local colleges. This is because the growth of local economies tends to haul the advancement of local colleges in that area rather than being the other way around. The agglomeration effect in Seoul where headquarters of large corporations and financial institutions gather is the factor that has elevated the status of colleges located in Seoul since this provides highly preferred job choices of graduates. When the competitiveness of college is significantly influenced by exogenous factors, such as the vicinity to Seoul, the effort being made by colleges alone would not be enough to improve the situation. However, the central government, too, is not in the position to carry out countermeasure policies for such problems. The regional development strategy boosted through supportive policies for local colleges, such as financial support, is not based on the persuasive and empirical grounds. It is true that college education is universal and that the government''s intervention in assisting local colleges to secure basic conditions, such as tenure faculty and adequate facilities is necessary. However, the way of intervention should not be a support-only type. In order to improve the efficiency and effect of financial support, restructuring programs, including the merger and integration of insolvent colleges, should be underway prior to providing support. In addition, when the policy is focused on education recipients-local college students, and not on education providers-local colleges, the importance of regional gap in compulsory education (elementary and junior high schools) turns out to be much important as the gap between metropolitan area colleges and local colleges. Considering the educational gap before college entrance shown from the discrepancies of aptitude test scores among different regions, the imbalance between regions in terms of human resources is apparently derived from compulsory education, and not from college education. Therefore, there is a need to double the policy efforts to reduce the educational gap among different regions. In addition, given the current situation where it is difficult to find appropriate ex post facto policy measures to solve the problem of income gap between the graduates from metropolitan colleges and local colleges, it can be said that improving the environment for compulsory education in local areas is a growing necessity for bridging the educational gap among different regions.

본 연구에서는 대졸자 직업이동 경로조사(GOMS) 자료를 이용하여 출신대학 소재지가 노동시장 성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 다른 조건이 유사할 때 비서울지역 대학교 졸업자는 서울 소재 대학교 졸업자에 비해 약 16% 정도 낮은 임금을 받는 것으로 추정되었다. 또한 비서울지역 대졸자는 소규모 업체나 전공과 맞지 않는 직장에 다닐 확률이 상대적으로 높은 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 서울 소재 대학 졸업자와 비서울지역 대학 졸업자 간 임금격차의 3분의 2 가량이 입학 당시의 학과 평균 수능점수의 차이로 설명될 수 있는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 사업체 규모나 직무와 전공의 일치도의 차이 역시 수능점수 격차에 의해 상당 부분 설명될 수 있다는 것이 밝혀졌다. 이처럼 노동시장 성과 차이에 대한 상당한 설명력을 갖고 있는 수능점수는 출생지, 14세 성장지, 고교 소재지가 어느 지역인가에 따라 뚜렷한 격차를 나타냈다. 따라서 지역간 학력격차 중 교육환경의 지역 간 차이에서 비롯되는 부분이 있다면 이를 보완할 필요가 있을 것이다.