Referee´s report on “Regional Heterogeneities in Returns to Education in Zambia: A Quantile Regression Analysis”

July 18, 2024

The paper deals with regional heterogeneity in returns to education in Zambia through Mincer approach. The objectives are consistent with the methodology. The sections are correctly ordered.

Comments to improve the paper:

In the Introduction when mention “Additionally, existing literature has mainly focused in determining gender wage gaps…”, explicitly mention the authors.
It is important to mention in the Introduction that these models correct the problems associated with the heterogeneity and self-selection of individuals and provide a brief explanation of how this is achieved.
The first paragraph of section 3.2 about variables is a bit confusing and needs to be rewritten more clearly.
In the paragraph between lines 39 and 48 it is necessary to convincingly justify why the regional heterogeneity is not due to the levels of education.
After each formula instead of “Where”, it must be “where”.
Sometimes the author uses Log(Y_ij) and other times Log(Y_ij). The notation must be homogeneous. Check this issue with all variables. For instance, in the linear programming problem given, all variables must be written in italics.
Remove the dotted line from each equation.
Do not number the sections "5.0", but simply "5".
The Conclusions are poor in the sense that they repeat the summary. It would be more important to offer public policy recommendations to reduce regional heterogeneity in returns to education for economies with similar characteristics.
The bibliography is incomplete. Many references are old. References 2021, 2022 and 2023 are missing (if possible include 2024).

It seems to me that the work contributes to a better understanding of the regional heterogeneity of returns to education in African countries. After incorporating all my comments, I will be happy to review the new version.