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The Impact of Employment during School on College Student Academic Performance

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  • Jeffrey S. DeSimone

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of paid employment on grades of full-time, four-year students from four nationally representative cross sections of the Harvard College Alcohol Study administered during 1993-2001. The relationship could be causal in either direction and is likely contaminated by unobserved heterogeneity. Two-stage GMM regressions instrument for work hours using paternal schooling and being raised Jewish, which are hypothesized to reflect parental preferences towards education manifested in additional student financial support but not influence achievement conditional on maternal schooling, college and class. Extensive empirical testing supports the identifying assumptions of instrument strength and orthogonality. GMM results show that an additional weekly work hour reduces current year GPA by about 0.011 points, roughly five times more than the OLS coefficient but somewhat less than recent estimates. Effects are stable across specifications, time, gender, class and age, but vary by health status, maternal schooling, religious background and especially race/ethnicity.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey S. DeSimone, 2008. "The Impact of Employment during School on College Student Academic Performance," NBER Working Papers 14006, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14006
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    Cited by:

    1. Dekker, I. & Chong, C.F. & Schippers, M.C. & van Schooten, E., 2021. "The Right Job Pays; Effects of Student Employment on the Study Progress of Pre-service Teachers," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2021-004-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    2. Flannery, Darragh & O’Donoghue, Cathal, 2013. "The demand for higher education: A static structural approach accounting for individual heterogeneity and nesting patterns," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 243-257.
    3. Scott-Clayton, Judith, 2012. "What Explains Trends in Labor Supply Among U.S. Undergraduates?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(1), pages 181-210, March.
    4. Steven Brint and Allison M. Cantwell, 2011. "ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES AND THE UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE: Rethinking Bok’s “Underachieving Colleges” Thesis," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt83q89897, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    5. Brecht Neyt & Eddy Omey & Dieter Verhaest & Stijn Baert, 2019. "Does Student Work Really Affect Educational Outcomes? A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 896-921, July.
    6. Edwards, Rebecca & Gibson, Rachael & Harmon, Colm & Schurer, Stefanie, 2022. "First-in-their-family students at university: Can non-cognitive skills compensate for social origin?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Kroupova, Katerina & Havranek, Tomas & Irsova, Zuzana, 2024. "Student Employment and Education: A Meta-Analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    8. Tjaša Bartolj & Sašo Polanec, 2018. "Does Work Harm Academic Performance of Students? Evidence Using Propensity Score Matching," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(4), pages 401-429, June.
    9. Angela Boatman & Bridget Terry Long, 2016. "Does Financial Aid Impact College Student Engagement?," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 57(6), pages 653-681, September.
    10. Lesner, Rune Vammen & Damm, Anna Piil & Bertelsen, Preben & Pedersen, Mads Uffe, 2022. "The Effect of School-Year Employment on Cognitive Skills, Risky Behavior, and Educational Achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    11. Gicheva, Dora & Anand, Priyanka, 2020. "The Impact of the ACA Medicaid Expansions on the Employment and Academic Progress of College Students," UNCG Economics Working Papers 20-3, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    12. María José Portillo-Navarro & Gabriela Lagos-Rodríguez & María-Leticia Meseguer-Santamaría, 2022. "Employability of University Graduates with Disabilities in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-14, January.
    13. Regula Geel & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2010. "Earning While Learning: Labor Market Returns to Student Employment During Tertiary Education," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0049, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    14. Scott-Clayton, Judith & Minaya, Veronica, 2016. "Should student employment be subsidized? Conditional counterfactuals and the outcomes of work-study participation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-18.
    15. Nathan D. Martin & Kenneth I. Spenner & Sarah A. Mustillo, 2017. "A Test of Leading Explanations for the College Racial-Ethnic Achievement Gap: Evidence from a Longitudinal Case Study," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 58(6), pages 617-645, September.
    16. Edwards, Rebecca & Gibson, Rachael & Harmon, Colm P. & Schurer, Stefanie, 2020. "First in Their Families at University: Can Non-cognitive Skills Compensate for Social Origin?," IZA Discussion Papers 13721, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Kureková, Lucia Mýtna & Žilin?íková, Zuzana, 2015. "Low-Skilled Jobs and Student Jobs: Employers' Preferences in Slovakia and the Czech Republic," IZA Discussion Papers 9145, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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