A study examined the relationship between accreditation status and hourly wages of medical record technicians (MRTs) in four major metropolitan areas (Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Atlanta) during August 1975. Multiple regression analysis of the hourly wages of 590 female, full-time MRTs collected through a government hospital wage survey…

Analysis of North Carolina survey data indicates that females' average hourly wages were 71% of males', and blacks' wages were 78% of whites'. Human capital factors (educational attainment and occupational experience) explained 31% and 3% of the racial and gender gaps, respectively. Job gender composition explained 56% of the gender gap; job…

This paper studies the effects of wages and employment on men's prison admission rates in the United States from 1983 to 2001. Research on the effects of the labor market on incarceration usually examines national-or state-level data, but our analysis studies prison admission among black and white men in specific age-education groups. We find a…

This paper estimates the effects of handedness on earnings. Augmenting a conventional earnings equation with an indicator of left-handedness shows there is a positive effect on male earnings with manual workers enjoying a slightly larger premium. These results are inconsistent with the view that left-handers in general are handicapped either…

Recent economic research has investigated the extent to which involvement in school-sponsored clubs and sports constitutes human capital investment. Through instrumental variables, the existing literature focuses on identifying long-term impacts in terms of educational attainment and wages. Instead, I use a fixed effects strategy to test whether…

Before 1997, education was a way for young French men to avoid military service in the army. After the abolition of compulsory conscription in 1997, this incentive to stay on in education disappeared. We show that the decrease in the benefit of pursuing education for men was followed by a fall in their educational achievement relative to women and…

According to data from the 1992 Biennial Gallup Survey on Giving and Volunteering, having some level of postsecondary education is clearly associated with increased levels of volunteering and giving. Sixty-three percent of adults aged 25 years and older with some postsecondary education reported both volunteering their time and making charitable…

A study examined determinants of wages and productivity in Mexico from 1993 and 1999 using two national surveys. In 1993, 7,619 employees from 575 firms were interviewed. In 1999, 6,259 employees from 722 firms were interviewed. Findings indicate that wage premiums and productivity increased with years of schooling, but workers had higher benefits…

Gordon Berlin discusses the nation's long struggle to reduce poverty in families with children, and proposes a counterintuitive solution--rewarding the work of individuals. He notes that policymakers' difficulty in reducing family poverty since 1973 is attributable to two intertwined problems--falling wages among low-skilled workers and the…

This three-year longitudinal study investigated whether low-wage employment was associated with improved psychological and parenting outcomes in a sample of 178 single mothers who were employed and unemployed current and former welfare recipients both before and subsequent to the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity…

We examine gender wage disparities for four groups of college-educated women--black, Hispanic, Asian, and non-Hispanic white--using the National Survey of College Graduates. Raw log wage gaps, relative to non-Hispanic white male counterparts, generally exceed -0.30. Estimated gaps decline to between -0.08 and -0.19 in nonparametric analyses that…

Using an expanded econometric model, this study sought to estimate more precisely the net effect of independent variables (i.e., attending an HBCU) on three measures of labor market outcomes for African American college graduates. Findings reveal a statistically significant, albeit moderate, relationship between measures of background, human and…

This paper examines the incidence and determinants of overeducation in the Belgian private sector. Two different approaches are used to define overeducation by means of data on characteristics of employees and employers. Using the 1995 "Structure of Earnings Survey", between 22% and 24% of the workforce is found to be overeducated.…

Examination of earnings and education data for a sample of approximately 1,600 workers in Pakistan reveals that the rate of return in earnings to schooling is low. The low rate of return appears to be a result of a conscious government policy that drastically compressed the skill-wage structure. (Author/MLF)

This study documents the public costs of high school dropouts in Georgia, and examines how policies that increase school choice, such as the recently-enacted tuition tax credit scholarship program will provide large public benefits by increasing public school graduation rates. The study calculates the annual cost of Georgia dropouts caused by…