Is a gender gap in net school enrollment a reflection of the gender wage gap in the labor market? Evidence using household data from Vietnam

The paper estimates both the gender gap in wage and net schooling enrollment from Vietnam household data. The results imply a reflection of gender wage gap in the labor market in hazard of school withdrawals. Generally, males have higher incentive to terminate their schooling to join the labor force. Males would have 43.8 percent higher in participating the labor market and gain 18.4 percent of wage per hour higher than females. Also, we observe 16?44.4 percent lower in probability for males to enroll in school, especially, the school withdrawal rate accelerates at higher speed after the age of primary school. Meanwhile, females would have an incentive to complete junior, senior high school and 3?year college thanks to higher speed gain in wage. Besides, family having a combination of a household head working for a state?owned firm and his spouse working as self?employed would best facilitate their co?residing children and grandchildren for more years of schooling. Finally, the current education subsidy and tuition fee reduction policy do minimal to reduce the hazard of school dropouts among beneficiaries.