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…

This paper compares the employment outcomes of liberal arts graduates from Dutch university colleges with those of their peers who pursued conventional, subject-specific bachelor's degrees. Using data from the Dutch National Alumni Survey, the analysis includes 14,933 respondents who completed a master's programme at a research university, with…

We estimate the wage returns of undergraduates who attained their degree via Scotland's Further Education College Articulation policy. We contribute to existing literature by adding to the research on varying returns based on paths to acquiring a degree, while also being the first paper to examine the returns associated with Scottish Articulation.…

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).…

This memo estimates the main economic benefits of tuition-free college in Illinois. These economic benefits are compared with the costs of making tuition free. In addition, the authors consider possible fiscal benefits of tuition-free college and whether these fiscal benefits for Illinois will offset the fiscal costs of making tuition free. This…

Positional competition in the labour market entails graduate opportunities that depend not only on graduates' skills, experience and abilities, but also on how their educational credentials compare to those of others. In this study, we examined the positional competition in the Finnish labour market and compared the influence of different 'degree…

Colleges offer remedial coursework to help students enrolling in post-secondary education who are not adequately prepared to succeed in college-level courses. Despite the prevalence of remediation, previous research presents contradictory findings regarding its short- and long-term effects. This paper uses a doubly robust inverse probability…

Using detailed administrative data from Virginia, this paper examines whether community college "vertical transfer" students who resemble "native four-year" students in their accumulated college-level credits and performance at their point of entry into the four-year sector perform equally well in terms of both academic and…

Canadians complete postsecondary education for many reasons, including the desire to improve their quality of life or to pursue their passion. For many, ensuring financial security after graduation is also an important motivation. This report looks at how postsecondary education credentials pay off in earnings for working-age men and women in the…

This article utilizes data from eight surveys of national samples of college graduates conducted by the Institute of Economics of Education at Peking University in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017 to conduct a trend analysis on employment status and job-seeking status among graduates, summarizing 12 overarching employment…

This paper examines evidence from the HESA DLHE six-month Censuses and 3½ year ('longitudinal') surveys relating to three aspects of the flows of those who have left university with Higher Education Engineering qualifications, to test the robustness of the conclusions of SKOPE Research Paper No. 122 (Dixon, 2015), which showed strong evidence that…

This third installment of "Hard Times" updates the previous analyses of college majors, unemployment, and earnings over the Great Recession. While there is wide variation by college majors, hard times have become better times for most college graduates, but the recovery is far from complete. Hard times are becoming better times for most…

Gainful employment and earnings to support a family living are significant policy goals of the applied baccalaureate program. Therefore, employment is an important metric to study; however, there are limitations in the data and process used in past reports that make understanding the true impact of applied baccalaureate programs on an individuals'…

Washington's community and technical colleges (CTCs) play an important role in producing baccalaureate degree graduates in the state. They expand opportunities for both graduates and employers, build upon professional-technical associate degrees, and provide a clear pathway for students who may be place bound or have difficulty finding a transfer…