Education is key to development strategies in Africa. We use overeducation and undereducation to analyse the effectiveness of education in preparing individuals for employment in Kenya and Ghana, using the Skills Towards Employment and Productivity Survey. Systematic differences in wages between matched, overeducated and undereducated workers hold…

We use data from the "Trajectoires et Origines" survey to analyze ethnic gaps in education and labor-market outcomes between second-generation immigrants and their French-native counterparts. Our three main findings underscore the importance of family background in explaining lifelong ethnic inequalities. First, second-generation…

Utilizing comprehensive administrative data from Norway I investigate long-term birth month effects. I demonstrate that the oldest children in class have a substantially higher GPA than their younger peers. The birth month differences are larger for low-SES children. Furthermore, I find that the youngest children in class are lagging significantly…

This paper analyzes the distribution of education and labor market benefits from sports participation. Results show that effects are similar across gender, but differ on other dimensions. In particular, participants in team sports show greater gains than those in individual sports. Quantile regressions show that educational gains are larger for…

Many studies have examined the match between years of schooling and the schooling required for the job. The quantity of schooling is only one way to consider the match between schooling and jobs. This paper considers an alternative match between education and jobs based on the relationship between college majors and work activities. Twenty percent…

This paper examines the relationship between the incentives to work and to invest in human capital through education in a lifecycle optimizing model. These incentives are shown to be mutually reinforcing in a simple stylized model. This theoretical prediction is investigated empirically using three large micro datasets covering a broad range of…