In this dissertation, I explore how international migration and environmental pollution shape human capital accumulation and labor market outcomes.The first chapter examines how college enrollment and major choice decisions of young adults in migrant-sending countries are affected by the removal of international migration barriers. My…

Broadband internet increases the hourly wages of college-educated workers. However, little is known about how broadband internet affects the wages of workers with different college majors. I combine several Norwegian data sets to answer this question. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband infrastructure and provided plausibly…

This research is based on the uniqueness of the national tests scores in Colombia where the same students take a standardized test both at the end of high school and at the end of college. We use then the information of the labor market to identify the return to college education once the graduates find a job. The findings suggest that there is…

Despite the growing evidence of informational interventions on college and major choices, we know little about how such light-touch interventions affect the gender gap in STEM majors. Linking survey data to administrative records of Chinese college applicants, we conducted a large-scale randomized experiment to examine the STEM gender gap in the…

A burgeoning literature has documented the importance of elite colleges. Yet, little is known about access to elite education and its labor market implications in China, a country that produces one in every five college graduates in the world. College admission in China is governed by a single exam--the national college entrance exam, and the…

This dissertation studies the effects of China's higher education expansion reform on workers' labor market outcomes. In Chapter 1, I investigate how China's higher education expansion reform affects young workers' labor market outcomes. Using data from the 2005 China Population Survey, I estimate the effects of the reform using a diff-in-diff…

In Chapter 1, I investigate the migration response of college students to tuition differences between states, using variation introduced by tuition regional reciprocity agreements. Out-of-state students generally pay higher tuition than in-state students, but reciprocity agreements reduce the premium paid by students from other states in the…

The evidence on why students from lower social origin are persistently underrepresented in higher education (HE) suggests social, educational and economic factors all play a role. We concentrate on the influence of monetary costs/benefits and how these are influenced by social origin. In particular, we consider the effect of a class-based wage…

This article reports an analysis of the relationship between women's increased participation in higher education and other recent social changes over the last four decades. To date, women's increased involvement in higher education has been studied as either a force for or a consequence of other sociocultural changes. Drawing on data from key…

In the article the avatar-based learning and teaching (A-BL&T) as a concept of control and managing knowledge in modern socio-economic conditions is proposed to use for assessment a university's economic efficiency. It is shown that all elements, methods and techniques (tools) do not operate in isolation, but rather are interrelated,…

In this dissertation, I investigate three barriers that students in China face when pursuing higher education: the unequal distribution of college enrollment quotas, the complexity of the college application process and financial constraints. These barriers exist worldwide, but the unique characteristics of the Chinese higher education system make…

We investigate the extent to which graduate returns vary according to the class of degree achieved by UK university students and examine changes over time in estimated degree class premia. Using a variety of complementary datasets for individuals born in Britain around 1970 and aged between 30 and 40, we estimate an hourly wage premium for a…

This article tests effectively maintained inequality theory against the case of China. Employing Chinese College Student Survey data from 2012, the study elaborates on the rationale and causes behind the expansion of higher education over the last two decades and the impact this has had on the system. Rather than empowering disadvantaged students,…

Using two representative samples of some 74,000 students and 11,000 graduates, respectively, we analyse the accuracy of students' wage expectations given their individual characteristics. We find that students are aware of the effects of most of their own characteristics, as a large number of determinants of expected and realised salaries do not…

The American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) is dedicated to the belief that lifelong learning contributes to human fulfillment and positive social change. The mission of the AAACE is to provide leadership for the field of adult and continuing education by expanding opportunities for adult growth and development; unifying…