As the cost of living continues to increase over time, many Americans are placing greater scrutiny on the financial choices they make. An area for such evaluation is if the outcomes of going to college continue to be worth the cost. One underrepresented group, first-generation college students (FGCS), is less likely than non-FGCS to attend and…

The massification of higher education has dramatically changed the association between credentials and jobs in advanced countries, while its impacts in transitional economies have received less academic attention. To address this research lacuna, the paper utilizes rich information from China's national surveys of college graduates from 2003 to…

The question of why postsecondary institutions produce different labor market outcomes is difficult to answer due to unobserved student characteristics. Here, I leverage students' geographic proximity to three classifications of postsecondary institutions -- earnings-enhancing, competitive, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).…