Labour Participation of Higher Education Students Jean-Luc Demeulemeester ± Denis Rochat Abstract. The aim of this article is to shed light on the determinants of the decision to participate in the labour force while studying, and of the intensity of this participation as measured by the wages earned by students. We show that students react to their future expected economic benefits associated with their chosen course of study. In this sense, our results confirm LeÂvy-Garboua's Revue franc Ëaise de Sociologie XVII: 53±80, 1976) thesis of working as an adjustment variable for the variations in the expected rate of return of discipline. Our results indicate that the decision to work while studying and its intensity depend on students' socioeconomic status and material needs, as well as external financial resources. Altogether, our results suggest that the equity and internal efficiency implications of such a social bias in the labour force participation behaviour might not be too important, but that some public interventions might nevertheless improve the overall external efficiency by allowing students to spend more time on more valorizing activities rather than unskilled and low-paid jobs. 1. Introduction This paper deals with the working behaviour of Belgian students. It offers an econometric analysis of both the determinants of working while studying and of earnings levels, the latter proxying the intensity of participation in the labour force. 1 This issue is increasingly important as increasing numbers of students tend to take work while studying, not solely during vacation but also during terms Steinberg, Greenberger, 1980). This phenomenon can LABOUR 14 3) 503±522 2000) JEL J00, J22 # Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2000, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Jean-Luc Demeulemeester, SKOPE Oxford and Department of Applied Economics, CP 145-Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 19, avenue F. Roosevelt, B1050 Brussels, Belgium. Denis Rochat author for correspondence), Universite de Cergy-Pontoise and CREBM Brussels, 32, rue Leon Delhaize, 1342 Limelette, Belgium. Fax: 32±2± 772.92.15.