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The Returns to Elite Degrees: The Case of American Lawyers

Author

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  • Paul Oyer
  • Scott Schaefer

Abstract

The authors study the market for young attorneys. Using data from two surveys of attorneys who passed the bar exam in 2000, they find that attorneys who graduate from law schools ranked in the Top 10 nationally earn considerably more than those without such a qualification, even compared to attorneys who graduate from schools ranked 11–20. The premium to an elite education carries over to an attorney’s undergraduate institution as well, and the findings suggest that elite bachelor’s degrees and elite law degrees are close substitutes in terms of their relationships to salaries. The elite–law school premium is more robust to various methods for correcting for selection on ability than the widely studied premium to attending a selective undergraduate institution. The authors consider several reasons elite-school premiums may exist in this labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Oyer & Scott Schaefer, 2019. "The Returns to Elite Degrees: The Case of American Lawyers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(2), pages 446-479, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:72:y:2019:i:2:p:446-479
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Chris Birdsall & Seth Gershenson & Raymond Zuniga, 2020. "The Effects of Demographic Mismatch in an Elite Professional School Setting," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(3), pages 457-486, Summer.
    2. Alex Stewart, 2022. "Who shuns entrepreneurship journals? Why? And what should we do about it?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 2043-2060, April.
    3. Naven, Matthew & Whalen, Daniel, 2022. "The signaling value of university rankings: Evidence from top 14 law schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. John Manuel Barrios & Laura Giuliano & Andrew J. Leone, 2020. "In Living Color: Does In-Person Screening Affect Who Gets Hired?," Working Papers 2020-38, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    5. Dariel, Aurelie & Riedl, Arno & Siegenthaler, Simon, 2021. "Referral hiring and wage formation in a market with adverse selection," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 109-130.
    6. Prakhov, Ilya, 2023. "Indicators of higher education quality and salaries of university graduates in Russia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

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