This paper examines the wage returns to qualifications and academic disciplines in the Greek labour market. Exploring wage responsiveness across various degree subjects in Greece is interesting, as it is characterised by high levels of graduate unemployment, which vary considerably with the field of study, and relatively low levels of wage…

Recent studies have found a large earnings premium to attending a more selective college, but the mechanisms underlying this premium have received little attention and remain unclear. In order to shed light on this question, I develop a multidimensional signaling model relying on college grades and selectivity that rationalizes students' choices…

This paper investigates some of the economic outcomes of education in Pakistan with a view to understanding if education can act as a vehicle for labour market success. Data from a purpose-designed survey of more than 1000 households in Pakistan are utilised. Earnings functions are estimated for agricultural workers, the self-employed and wage…

While several types of mental illness, including substance abuse disorders, have been linked with poor labor market outcomes, no current research has been able to examine the effects of childhood ADHD. As ADHD has become one of the most prevalent childhood mental conditions, it is useful to understand the full set of consequences of the illness.…

This study improves upon the Difference in Difference approach by examining exogenous shocks using a Generalized Difference in Difference (GDD) technique that identifies economic effects of hurricanes. Based on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data, worker earnings in Florida counties hit by a hurricane increase up to 4 percent,…

This study examines the labor market costs associated with being foreign-born and not having U.S. citizenship among Mexicans in California and Texas, the two largest states. Data from the 2000 5% Public Use Microdata Sample are used to conduct the multivariate regression analysis. The results show that being an immigrant, particularly a…

This study provides one of the first estimates of the returns to different types of community college credentials--short-term certificates, long-term certificates, and associate degrees--across different fields of study. We exploit a rich dataset that includes matched, longitudinal college transcripts and Unemployment Insurance records for…

This paper studies the long-term effects of the business cycle on workers' future promotions and wages. Using the Swedish employer-employee matched data, we find that a cohort of workers entering the labor market during a boom gets promoted faster and reaches higher ranks. This procyclical promotion cohort effect persists even after controlling…

The purpose of this literature review is to explore the relationship between literacy and poverty primarily using data from the series of related international literacy assessments, commonly referred to as the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). IALS data provides extensive information about literacy and related factors such as employment,…

This study extends previous work of Cain Polidano and Kostas Mavromaras (2010) which showed that vocational education and training (VET) qualifications had a positive effect on the chances of finding work for people with a disability. It teases out this earlier result by looking at whether, for those who already have a disability, completing a VET…

As the college class of 2011 graduates in the aftermath of the Great Recession, some graduates are struggling to find a good job--or any job at all. As a result, many are questioning whether the time and expense of college was worth it. The authors try to answer this question by comparing the economic benefits of a college degree to its costs, as…

Several recent studies across the social sciences show that the spatial agglomeration of employment in a local labor market benefits both firms and workers in terms of better firm performance and higher wages. Drawing from the organizational ecology perspective, we argue that workers receive higher wages in large industrial clusters and urban…

This study uses the 2000 U.S. Census data to assess the impact of antidiscrimination policies for sexual orientation on earnings for gays and lesbians. Using a multilevel model allows estimation of the effects of state and local policies on earnings and of variation in the effects of sexual orientation across local labor markets. The results…

"Library Journal's annual Placements & Salaries Survey, with 1,996 respondents representing 38.7% of the approximately 5160 2009 LIS graduates, found an uptick in starting salaries, but bigger bumps in part-time and temporary jobs, an expanding gender gap, setbacks for minority graduates, and a drop in the number of total graduates. On the up…

In this paper we investigate whether peers' behavior influences the choice of college major, thus contributing to the mismatch of skills in the labor market. Using a newly constructed dataset, we are able to identify the endogenous effect of peers on such decisions through a novel identification strategy that solves the common econometric problems…