The articles contained in this three-article dissertation carefully document characteristics of early childhood (EC) classrooms that could be beneficial to early learning and success. These articles use multiple regression, descriptive statistics, and multi-level modeling in their methodology and make recommendations for policy in the field of…

This dissertation contains three essays discussing government policy in higher education, the effects of online social networks during college on students after graduating, and how to use search data as a tool to recover characteristics of both products and customers to estimate demand. In the first chapter, co-authored with Shengmao Cao, we study…

Renewed attention to quality in higher education in all sectors, particularly since the 2007-2009 Great Recession, has raised interest in the value of education. While research associating the quality of education and institutional attributes with graduate earning potentials has been conducted among four-year higher education institutions, fewer…

This study aims to explore the impact of college quality on early labor market outcomes in China, including the fresh college graduates' initial employment status and starting wages for students who graduated in 2011. The main data source is the College Student Labor Market (CSLM) survey conducted by Tsinghua University. Distinguished from…

In the first chapter, I analyze the growth patterns of postsecondary education costs in re-cent years. It shows the trends of college revenue, expenditure and other financial items using data drawn from the Delta Data Project between 1987 and 2010. Connections between various categories of revenue/spending and state-level macroeconomic indicators…

In an effort to increase the quantity and quality of available teachers, states have begun to offer alternate methods of teacher certification. This means that in addition to traditional teacher training, which involves graduation from an accredited teacher-education institution, states provide alternate routes to enable teachers to transition to…

This dissertation consists of three essays on adolescents' post secondary education choices and labor market returns. The first chapter analyzes returns to selectivity of four-year colleges by different post-bachelor's degree schooling paths. The second chapter documents the role of family income in college application and enrollment…