Majoring in business typically pays off. While graduates' earnings and federal student loan debt vary by institution and degree level, the majority of business programs lead to median earnings that are roughly 10 times graduates' debt payments two years after program completion. "The Most Popular Degree Pays Off: Ranking the Economic Value of…

This study investigates whether the completion of an optional 'sandwich' work placement enhances graduate starting salaries. We use a variety of multivariate regression techniques to investigate this issue and find that the graduate starting salaries of students who took professional work placements were significantly higher by £1686 ($2105)…

In the discipline of technical/professional writing and communication, one of the strongest recruiting tools we use is the potential earning power students will have once they obtain a degree and secure a job in the industry. This article is the result of two professors learning that one of their most advanced and dedicated students accepted, in…

We examine the relationship between secondary school attainment and early-career graduate salaries in the UK. Based on literature on grade inflation, we hypothesise that there is uncertainty regarding the quality of the signal communicated by degree classifications, and that secondary school grades can be used as a tool to determine the veracity…

Using the detailed college level data from the College Scorecard on students' post-college earnings from the near universe of four-year colleges, we assess the usefulness of going beyond comparing colleges based only on median earnings and analyze the descriptive relationship between college selectivity and earnings outcomes and how this…

This dissertation consists of two essays at the intersection of the economics of education and inequality. The first chapter analyzes how increasing levels of student debt affect career and housing choices of bachelor's degree recipients in the United States. Using within-cohort across-school variations in financial aid policies, it shows that…

For decades, the federal government has expected vocationally focused programs in higher education, especially among for-profit colleges, to lead to gainful employment in a profession. In the mid-2010s, the U.S. Department of Education developed gainful employment (GE) regulations that sought to tie a program's federal financial aid eligibility to…

This article looks at the labour market outcomes of 2015 postsecondary graduates three years after graduation. Specifically, it examines their employment status, job permanency, relatedness of their job or business to their 2015 educational program, the degree to which graduates feel qualified for their job, their employment income and their job…

This "Economic Insights" article documents the evolution of real annual wages and salaries and employment patterns of young postsecondary graduates by field of study from 2005 to 2012. Results are shown for Canadian-born individuals aged 25 to 34 who are college graduates or hold a bachelor's degree. The data are drawn from the linked…

Obtaining a tertiary degree no longer guarantees entry to the best occupational positions in today's labour market. Success is no longer about "more" education, but about "better" education for university graduates. This study aims to understand whether university prestige in Korea accounts for occupational outcomes in both…

This paper assesses the impact of the mismatch between a college major and job on college graduates' early career earnings using a sample from China. On average, a major-job mismatched college graduate is found to suffer from an income loss that is much lower than the penalty documented in previous studies. The income losses are also found to be…

Hispanics' earnings remain below those of Whites, even after controlling for educational attainment. This article explores the effect of college major on estimated starting salaries of White and Hispanic bachelor's-degree recipients from Connecticut colleges and universities. Results indicate that while the earnings gap between Hispanic and White…

This report results from a partnership between the State of Florida and College Measures. It focuses on the median first-year earnings of recent graduates and completers from Florida's public postsecondary educational institutions: SUS, FCS, and DTCs. The report documents the variation in first-year earnings for completers who earned degrees or…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to verify whether higher education increases the likelihood of young Italian workers moving from non-standard to standard wage contracts. Design/methodology/approach: The authors exploit a data set on labour market flows, produced by the Italian National Statistical Office, by interviewing about 85,000…

This study assessed the nature of the relationship between earning advanced degrees and career outcomes such as salary, job satisfaction, social capital, and human capital among professionals in the parks and recreation field. The sample (n = 196) was drawn from parks and recreation agencies located in the United States. Agencies, excluding…