abstract: 'Purpose - This paper uses a unique survey of Roma and non-Roma in South

  Eastern Europe with the aim of evaluating competing explanations for the

  poor performance of Roma in the labour market.

  Design/methodology/approach - Following a descriptive analysis,

  econometric models are employed to identify the determinants of

  educational achievement, employment and wages for Roma and non-Roma.

  Limited information maximum likelihood (LIML) methods are employed to

  control for endogenous schooling and two sources of sample selection

  bias in the estimates. Non-linear and linear decomposition techniques

  are applied in order to identify the extent of discrimination.

  Findings - The key results are that: the employment returns to education

  are lower for Roma than for non-Roma whilst the wage returns are broadly

  similar for the two groups; the similar wage gains translate into a

  smaller absolute wage gain for Roma than for non-Roma given their lower

  average wages; the marginal absolute gains from education for Roma are

  only a little over one-third of the marginal absolute gains to education

  for majority populations; and, there is evidence to support the idea

  that a substantial part of the differential in labour market outcomes is

  due to discrimination.

  Research limitations/implications - The survey data employed do not

  include information on hours worked. In order to partially control for

  this, the analysis of wages is limited to employee wages excluding the

  self-employed.

  Practical implications - Explanations of why Roma fare so badly tend to

  fall into one of two camps: the ``low education{''''} and the

  ``discrimination{''''} schools. The analysis suggests that both of these

  explanations have some basis in fact. Moreover, a direct implication of

  the lower absolute returns to education accruing to Roma is that their

  lower educational participation is, at least in part, due to rational

  economic calculus. Consequently, policy needs to address both low

  educational participation and labour market discrimination

  contemporaneously.

  Originality/value - This is the first paper to attempt to

  econometrically distinguish between discrimination and educational

  explanations of Roma disadvantage in the labour market in Central and

  Eastern Europe. The survey data employed are unique and appropriate for

  the task. Unusually for analyses dealing with returns to education, the

  LIML econometric approach employed controls for both endogenous

  schooling and two sources of sample selection bias.'
affiliation: 'O''Higgins, N (Corresponding Author), Univ Salerno, I-84100 Salerno,
  Italy.

  Univ Salerno, I-84100 Salerno, Italy.'
author: O'Higgins, Niall
author_list:
- family: O'Higgins
  given: Niall
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1108/01437721011042250
files: []
issn: 0143-7720
journal: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANPOWER
keywords: Ethnic minorities; Discrimination; Education; Europe; Labour market
language: English
note: '22nd Conference of the Italian-Association-of-Labour-Economists, Univ

  Parthenope, Naples, ITALY, SEP, 2007'
number: '2'
number-of-cited-references: '13'
orcid-numbers: O'Higgins, Shane Niall/0000-0002-6627-5547
pages: 163-187
papis_id: 09e76c7f999b0177e69ad01a3502875d
ref: Ohiggins2010itsnot
researcherid-numbers: O'Higgins, Shane Niall/B-6063-2014
times-cited: '16'
title: '``It''s not that I''m a racist, it''s that they are Roma″ Roma discrimination
  and returns to education in South Eastern Europe'
type: Article; Proceedings Paper
unique-id: WOS:000278918500004
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '18'
volume: '31'
web-of-science-categories: Industrial Relations \& Labor; Management
year: '2010'