This dissertation focuses on the structures and impacts of digital skills in the rapidly transforming labor market. It is rooted in the premise that understanding the value of digital skills requires a relational perspective, acknowledging that these competencies are not isolated, but form complex structures across different occupations. The…

As of 2022, one third of college students in the United States are first-generation students (FGCS), with a significant number pursuing engineering degrees. This research focused on understanding and addressing the unique challenges and needs of FGCS in engineering, emphasizing the importance of career and professional development. FGCS often face…

This dissertation contains three chapters related to the study of how business cycles create real and persistent effects on economic agents. Chapter 1 focuses on young individuals' careers and college decisions; Chapter 2 on firms' firing and hiring asymmetric decisions and Chapter 3 on firms' sourcing strategies. In Chapter 1 "Strategic or…

Over the past 30 years, a shift occurred in higher education that saw more of the burden for paying for postsecondary education placed on students. Combined with rising tuition and fees, this has led students to take on increasing amounts of student debt. Despite the historic rise in student loans, surprisingly little attention has focused on…

The purpose of this interpretive case study was to investigate how several community colleges work with local industry partners to create market alignment and uncover the social outcomes within their communities. Most studies within labor market alignment focus on the economic outcomes, but this study sought to review the social outcomes. This…

All of our choices and all that sets us apart are governed by what we can do, what we want to do, and what we know. This dissertation aims to quantify two of these channels to better understand why we differ. The first two chapters focus on what we know and how it shapes societal gaps. The first chapter attacks the question of how much of the gap…

This dissertation studies the effect of higher education costs on students' outcomes in the labor market, particularly when credit constraints are absent. It utilizes the UK's institutional setting to identify such an effect. The key findings are as follows. (i) Increasing tuition fees does not have adverse effects on students as long as credit…

Lack of university funding and support of experiential learning programs reduces opportunities for meaningful employment for culturally diverse students. Economic conditions foster a university's ability to fund experiential programs, and lack of funding places experiential learning programs (ELPs) at risk of being cut, impacting student…

There is a widening gap between traditional higher education and the needs of the industry workforce. Higher education has lately been criticized for having too few voices playing a role in most curricula development, with the voices being used consisting largely of career academics (Nature Editorial, 2023). Both industry and academia have found a…

This study examined higher education workforce development practitioners' views on incorporating innovation ecosystems into workforce models to address U.S. workforce pipeline gaps and evolving labor market needs. While current programs have some success, they often fail to prepare graduates with knowledge and specific skills for rapid entry into…

The COVID-19 pandemic placed an undeniable burden onto the teaching profession which already faced levels of prestige and interest at 50-year lows. The strains of the pandemic resulted in educators reporting higher levels of job-related stress and burnout and exacerbated concerns about potential teacher shortages. This dissertation leverages…

This dissertation includes three essays on the economics of higher education. In the first chapter, I study the effects of college transfer. Over one-third of college students in the United States transfer between institutions, yet little is known about how transferring affect students' educational and labor market outcomes. Using administrative…

This dissertation consists of three chapters that study individual investment in human capital and the incidence of economic shocks. I use administrative data to answer these questions, developing and applying structural methods to analyze individual choices in combination with a careful consideration of research design. Chapter 1 studies the…

This dissertation studies the market for higher education and impacts of higher education policy on the market. In the first chapter, I estimate the short-run elasticity of supply of higher education using the rollout of state merit grant programs as plausibly exogenous variation in student demand for in-state higher education. I find that public…

This dissertation studies opportunity and equity in college admissions, as well as how higher education affects labor market outcomes. The first two chapters explore how state policies affect enrollment at public institutions of higher education. The third chapter characterizes outcomes in a labor market in which agents with different skill levels…