This paper shows mutually consistent evidence to support female advantage in education and disadvantage in labor markets observed in the Philippines. We set up a model that shows multiple Nash equilibria to explain schooling and labor market behaviors for females and males. Our evidence from unique sibling data of schooling and work history and…

There is a vast literature on the decision to enroll in higher education, but it focuses almost entirely on traditional students: 18 year olds graduating from high school. Yet less than half of students at degree-granting institutions are in the traditional 18-22 age range; nearly 40% are at least 25. This paper examines the enrollment behavior of…

This paper exploits discontinuities and randomness in the college admissions in Sweden in 1982, to estimate the economic return to college in the 1990s. At the time, college admissions were highly selective and applicants were ranked with respect to their formal merits. Admissions were given to those ranked higher than some threshold value. At the…

This paper challenges Hanushek and Woessmann's (2008) contention that the quality and not the quantity of schooling determines a nation's rate of economic growth. I first show that their statistical analysis is flawed. I then show that when a nation's average test scores and average schooling attainment are included in a national income model,…

In this paper we analyze the role played by self-confidence, modeled as beliefs about one's ability, in shaping task choices. We propose a model in which fully rational agents exploit all the available information to update their beliefs using Bayes' rule, eventually learning their true type. We show that when the learning process does not…

This paper estimates changes in the effects of educational attainment and college quality on three cohorts of students observed during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Consistent with most of the prior literature, I find that educational attainment and college quality raise earnings, and the magnitudes of these effects have increased over time. The…

Most of the studies that account for the endogeneity bias when estimating the returns to schooling assume that the relationship between education and earnings is linear. Studies that assume the latter relationship to be non-linear simply ignore the endogeneity bias. Moreover, they either assume an ad-hoc non-linear relationship or argue that…

We examine the correlation between modern human capital and income among adult men in four foraging-horticultural societies of Bolivia. Despite their remote location, we find results similar to those found in developed nations. We find that: (a) education correlates with 4.5% higher overall income and with 5.9% higher wages and math skills…

Among linguistic minorities of industrial nations proficiency speaking the dominant national language increases earnings and wages, but do similar results apply to autarkic linguistic minorities of developing nations? We contribute to studies of the returns to language skills by applying the human-capital approach to a society of hunters,…

Examines labor-market value of the General Educational Development (GED) credential for females. Finds that among females who dropped out of high school with weak basic math skills, those with a GED have accumulated more work experience and have higher labor-market earning in their mid-20s than have observationally similar dropouts lacking the GED…

Examines whether devoting more resources to education can positively affect the distribution of income within a country. Finds that public-education expenditures appear to be associated with a subsequent decrease in the level of income inequality. Finding is robust to the inclusion of various control variables and appears to be larger in…

A regression analysis of 1966 National Longitudinal Survey data compared the human capital returns of employees with those of self-employed owners of nonfarm businesses, using information on income, grade completed, race, vocational training, and other variables. Results indicate the human capital returns were basically similar for both groups.…

This paper seeks to examine the impact of education on income growth in India for the time period 1966-1996. Education is broken down into the categories of primary, secondary, and tertiary. Time series techniques are used to determine whether education, for each category, has a causal impact on growth. Furthermore, the education variables are…

The impact of school quality on students is most evident in less developed nations where it affects students' cognitive and behavioral outcomes. The study concludes that improvement in the quality of schooling would be more beneficial than expanded access to poorer quality education in less developed nations. (MD)