Economics Department, University of Zimbabwe, Mt Pleasant drive, Harare, Zimbabwe
Richard, M., Economics Department, University of Zimbabwe, Mt Pleasant drive, Harare, Zimbabwe; Emily, R., Economics Department, University of Zimbabwe, Mt Pleasant drive, Harare, Zimbabwe
Macroeconomic fluctuations experienced in most developing countries are believed to be the major determinants of the demand for education. The extent to which these factors influence tertiary education is still on research agenda. This study takes further the research agenda by investigating the effects of macroeconomic factors on the demand for tertiary education. Modelling enrolment as an Autoregressive Distributable Lag (ADL) of order one, the results show that labour market conditions are the major macroeconomic determinants, especially current unemployment and average earnings have positive and elastic effect, but unemployment persistence has a negative although elastic influence. However, the income variable (real per capita GDP) had no statistically discernable effect. There was no evidence of gender disparity as the effects slightly varied between male and female enrolment. The major policy implication is for the government to fight high levels of persistent unemployment.
