Abstract This study examines the causal effect of university types on labor market outcomes in Cambodia, leveraging the country's rapid higher education expansion following the 1997 Higher Education Privatization policy, set against Cambodia's labor market, characterized by pronounced regional disparities and uneven sectoral development. Using pooled cross‐sectional data between 2020 and 2023 from 1091 graduates across 36 universities, observed during the early stages of their employment, we implement an Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA) methodology to address selection bias. We find that private university graduates earn a significant wage premium of 9%–10% compared to public university graduates with similar endowments. Oster's bounding approach also confirms robustness to unobserved selection. Heterogeneous effects are observed across wage distribution, major composition, and employment regions. The wage premium is driven by occupational and sectoral sorting, with private university graduates concentrated in knowledge‐intensive service occupations, highlighting implications for higher education policy in structurally transforming economies.
Seyhakunthy Hun (2026) studied this question.