Alí Aali-Bujari, Francisco Venegas-Martínez, Arturo García-Santillán ISSN 2071-789X RECENT ISSUES IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Economics & Sociology, Vol. 12, No. 4, 2019 74 SCHOOLING LEVELS AND WAGE GAINS IN MEXICO Alí Aali-Bujari, Universidad Autónoma de Estado de Hidalgo, México E-mail: alibujari@yahoo.es Francisco Venegas- Martínez, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México E-mail: fvenegas1111@yahoo.com.mx Arturo García-Santillán, Universidad Cristóbal Colón, México E-mail: agarcias@ucc.mx Received: March, 2019 1st Revision: June, 2019 Accepted: November, 2019 DOI: 10.14254/2071- 789X.2019/12-4/4 ABSTRACT. This paper assesses the impact of the returns to education on income of the heads of family in Mexico in 2016. The analysis is based on Mincer’s (1974) earnings function by using microdata from the National Household Income Survey (ENIGH acronym in Spanish) 2016. Estimations following Mincer equation are carried out by levels of schooling. The main conclusion is that as the level of education among Mexican heads of family increases, it magnifies the increase in income levels, which, in turn, enlarges human capital and learning capacity needed for sustained growth and welfare. JEL Classification: I26, C13, I23 Keywords: economics of education, returns to education, Mincer earnings function, levels of schooling, Mexico Introduction Most of the research on education, theoretical and/or empirical, is related to economic growth or economic development. The theory of human capital emphasizes that education is an investment that increases future income for individuals and for society as a whole. It has been shown in a large number of empirical investigations that investing in education generates greater productivity and quality of the workforce: see, for instance, Schultz (1961) and Becker (1975), Heckman (2005), Hugget, Ventura and Yaon (2006), Christiansen, Joensen and Nielsen (2007), Su and Lu (2016), and many others. Most of research indicates that the majority of countries with high average schooling levels enjoy high levels of per capita income. In this regard, education contributes to raising productivity, earnings, and welfare for workers, which, in turn, has a positive impact on both firms and society. Most of the specialized literature regarding returns to education has found empirical evidence of positive returns. However, returns to education by levels of schooling need to be studied with Aali-Bujari, A., Venegas-Martínez, F., & García-Santillán, A. (2019). Schooling levels and wage gains in Mexico. Economics and Sociology, 12(4), 74-83. doi:10.14254/2071-789X.2019/12-4/4