Much research has been made in recent years on the effect of over and under education on earnings. In this paper, I examine the validity of the assumption that the return to over (under) education is independent of the level of education. I use data from the PIAAC survey to estimate the return to education. The findings show that while this…

Context: Existing studies have explored the association between workplace training and wages suggesting that training participation may have a positive association with wages. However, we still know very little about whether this association varies between men and women. Through its potential positive association with wages, training may balance…

This paper investigates whether education weakens the relationship between early-life disadvantages and later-life SES. We use three proxies for advantage that we show are independently associated with SES in middle-age. Besides early, favorable family and neighborhood conditions, we argue that the genes a child inherits also represent a source of…

This study revisits returns to education in three Vietnamese rural provinces, using data on seven waves between 2007 and 2017, taken from the Thailand Vietnam SocioEconomic Panel (TVSEP). We deploy various approaches to address the endogeneity problem, and the findings show that individuals with a lower secondary school diploma are likely to earn…

Experimental research demonstrates sustained high-quality early care and education (ECE) can mitigate the consequences of poverty into adulthood. However, the long-term effects of community-based ECE are less known. Using the 1991 NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 994; 49.7% female; 73.6% White, 10.6% African American,…

We investigate the relationship between college openings, college attainment, and health behaviors and outcomes later in life. Though a large prior literature attempts to isolate the causal effect of education on health via instrumental variables (IV), most studies use instruments that affect schooling behavior in childhood or adolescence, i.e.…

The Middle East and North Africa region has the world's lowest returns to education. This paper examines what the value of a degree is using nationally representative labour market surveys from Egypt (2012), Jordan (2010) and Tunisia (2014). Specifically, the authors estimate Mincer models for levels and years of schooling. They find that returns…

Numerous studies have investigated the consequences of vertical transfer on students' higher education outcomes in comparison to "native 4-year students"--those who went straight from high school into a bachelor's program. However, the long-term labor market outcomes for vertical transfer students are understudied. Using…

We conduct an empirical simulation exercise that gauges the plausible impact of increased rates of college attainment on a variety of measures of income inequality and economic insecurity. Using two different methodological approaches--a distributional approach and a causal parameter approach--we find that increased rates of bachelor's and…

This policy brief discusses an empirical simulation exercise that gauges the plausible impact of increased rates of college attainment on a variety of measures of income inequality and economic insecurity. The results reveal that increasing college attainment would shrink gaps between the 90th percentile and lower half of the earnings…

College-educated immigrants in the United States are more likely to have advanced degrees and to major in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields than their U.S.-born peers with college degrees. But their educational levels have not always translated into occupational gains: They are more likely than U.S.-born workers to be…

How do changes in minimum wages affect community college enrollment and employment? In particular, among adults without associate's or bachelor's degrees who may earn near the minimum wage, do endowment effects of a higher minimum wage encourage school attendance? Among adults without associate's or bachelor's degrees who may earn near the minimum…

Skill development has been a major policy agenda in several countries and there is a lot of emphasis on the promotion of vocational education and training (VET) programmes. This paper investigates the labour market outcomes of the vocationally trained population in India using the data from a nationally representative survey on employment and…

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…

The nature of apprenticeships is changing. Increasing proportions of adult apprentices are prompting demand for various alternative pathways to completion. One option for an alternative pathway to accelerate completion is the use of recognition of prior learning (RPL) to identify existing skills and knowledge in combination with gap training. This…