This article reviews the existing literature on the economic and other benefits of attending community college. First, the article reports on the earnings gains across all students and reviews the evidence for subgroups by gender, minority status, and credits accumulated. The article then reviews the methodological challenges associated with…

A proportion of employees are overqualified for their work. This generates a wage premium relative to the job but a penalty relative to the qualification, and is therefore, a puzzle for human capital theory. A part of this derives from the use of measures of time spent in education for the calculation of overqualification. Analysing data from four…

This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation trying to explain individual time-to-degree variances with business cycle fluctuations. Assuming that students determine the optimum study length at university weighing up the cost of an additional semester against the consumption benefit of studying and not yet working, the general…

Local school districts differ in their ability to pay for teacher quality, and in the amenities they offer as places to live and work. Market clearing with heterogeneous quality yields geographically varying teacher salary levels that confound scarcity with unobserved differences in quality. The paper discusses identification and estimation of a…

Recent economic research has investigated the extent to which involvement in school-sponsored clubs and sports constitutes human capital investment. Through instrumental variables, the existing literature focuses on identifying long-term impacts in terms of educational attainment and wages. Instead, I use a fixed effects strategy to test whether…

From a random sample of 14,596 White males aged 25-64, earnings of those who were employed full time, year round were analyzed. Results show that overeducated workers--those with educational attainments substantially above the mean for their occupations--often earn less than their adequately educated and undereducated counterparts. (SK)

Estimates of discrimination represent poor guides to decision making when discrimination is defined too broadly, when earnings differentials are not properly adjusted for changes in relative productivity, and when the present-value method used is not well-suited to the problem. Available from The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 50…

This paper compares relative earnings by sex among university faculty members as estimated from both cross-section and longitudinal data samples. Results indicate substantial differences in estimated male-female salary ratios. (TE)

Payroll and progressive income taxes play an enormous role in the American fiscal system. The purpose of this study is to present some econometric evidence on the effects of taxes on married women, a group of growing importance in the American labor force. A testable model of labor supply is developed which permits statistical estimation of a…

Examines two opposing positions of economists about immigration's impacts. Reports empirical analysis of wages and employment effects of recent undocumented aliens and settled migrants on native-born workers. Separate native-born worker estimates are provided for men and women, subdivided by race and Spanish origin. (FMW)

This critique of the "orthodox radical" interpretation of social classes argues that the predominance of middle- class wage earners and women moving into the nonmanual job market constitutes a departure from the traditional "working class". Better working conditions and wages are the nonmanual workers' incentives to ally themselves with…

Reports on a study of Black and White male workers aged 32 or less, who had established their own residences and had worked full time for 10 years or less. The study explored the relationships among such variables as parental income, educational background, job tenure, and workers' earnings. (PGD)

A study of earnings differences between northern and southern states shows that white-collar workers in both areas now receive roughly equal pay. Women, blacks and blue-collar workers in the South still receive significantly lower wages than their northern counterparts. (AM)

Three strategic effects on the rates of return to vocational and technical education (VOTEC) are considered: (1) the availability of complementary inputs such as general education; (2) the capacity of VOTEC to teach continuing adaptation to technical change; and (3) economies of scale that can be realized. (26 references) (MLF)

Measures the effect of immigration on the earnings of U.S.-born males, ages 14 to 24. Findings include the following: (1) pre-1965 immigrants have a positive impact; (2) recent immigrants have a negative impact; and (3) negative impact diminishes as the youth ages. (FMW)