IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5613.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does It Pay To Attend An Elite Private College? Cross Cohort Evidence on the Effects of College Quality on Earnings

Author

Listed:
  • Dominic J. Brewer
  • Eric Eide
  • Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Abstract

While there is evidence of a substantial and rising labor market premium associated with college attendance, little is known about how this premium varies across institutions of different quality and across time. Previous research which has estimated the return to college quality has not taken into account that individuals likely select the type of college they attend based in part on the expected economic return and net costs. In this paper we explicitly model high school students' choice of college type (characterized by quality and control) based on individual and family characteristics (including ability and parental economic status), and an estimate of the net costs of attendance and expected labor market return. We estimate selectivity corrected outcome equations, using data from both the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and High School and Beyond, which permit us to determine the effects of college quality on wages and earnings and how this effect varies across time. Even after controlling for selection effects there is strong evidence of significant economic return to attending an elite private institution, and some evidence that this premium has increased over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Dominic J. Brewer & Eric Eide & Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 1996. "Does It Pay To Attend An Elite Private College? Cross Cohort Evidence on the Effects of College Quality on Earnings," NBER Working Papers 5613, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5613
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5613.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Willis, Robert J & Rosen, Sherwin, 1979. "Education and Self-Selection," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 7-36, October.
    2. Ehrenberg, Ronald G. & Brewer, Dominic J., 1994. "Do school and teacher characteristics matter? Evidence from High School and Beyond," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Ritchie H. Reed & Herman P. Miller, 1970. "Some Determinants of the Variation in Earnings for College Men," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 5(2), pages 177-119.
    4. Lewis C. Solomon, 1975. "The Definition of College Quality and Its Impact on Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Explorations in Economic Research, Volume 2, number 4, pages 537-587, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jeff Grogger & Eric Eide, 1995. "Changes in College Skills and the Rise in the College Wage Premium," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30(2), pages 280-310.
    6. Loury, Linda Datcher & Garman, David, 1995. "College Selectivity and Earnings," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 289-308, April.
    7. James, Estelle, et al, 1989. "College Quality and Future Earnings: Where Should You Send Your Child to College?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 247-252, May.
    8. Trost, Robert P & Lee, Lung-Fei, 1984. "Technical Training and Earnings: A Polychotomous Choice Model with Selectivity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(1), pages 151-156, February.
    9. Levy, Frank & Murnane, Richard J, 1992. "U.S. Earnings Levels and Earnings Inequality: A Review of Recent Trends and Proposed Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 1333-1381, September.
    10. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    11. Gyourko, Joseph & Tracy, Joseph, 1988. "An Analysis of Public- and Private-Sector Wages Allowing for Endogenous Choices of Both Government and Union Status," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(2), pages 229-253, April.
    12. Daniel, Kermit & Black, Dan & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1997. "College Quality and the Wages of Young Men," University of Western Ontario, Departmental Research Report Series 9707, University of Western Ontario, Department of Economics.
    13. Fox, Marc, 1993. "Is it a good investment to attend an elite private college?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 137-151, June.
    14. Lewis C. Solmon, 1973. "The Definition and Impact of College Quality," NBER Working Papers 0007, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Wachtel, Paul, 1976. "The Effect of Earnings of School and College Investment Expenditures," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 58(3), pages 326-331, August.
    16. Terence J. Wales, 1973. "The Effect of College Quality on Earnings: Results from the N B E R-Thorndike Data," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(3), pages 306-317.
    17. Kermit Daniel & Dan Black & Jeffery Smith, 1996. "College Quality and the Wages of Young Men," HEW 9604001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berhman, J-R & Kletzer, L & Constantine, J & McPherson, M & Schapiro, M-O, 1996. "The Impact of College Quality on Wages : Are There Differences Among Demographic Groups?," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-38, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    2. Kermit Daniel & Dan Black & Jeffery Smith, 1996. "College Characteristics and the Wages of Young Women," HEW 9604002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Kermit Daniel & Dan Black & Jeffery Smith, 1996. "College Quality and the Wages of Young Men," HEW 9604001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Long, Mark C., 2010. "Changes in the returns to education and college quality," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 338-347, June.
    5. Julian Betts & Christopher Ferrall & Ross Finnie, 2013. "The Role of University Characteristics in Determining Post-Graduation Outcomes: Panel Evidence from Three Canadian Cohorts," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 39(s1), pages 81-106, May.
    6. Ferrall, Christopher & Betts, Julian & Finnie, Ross, 2007. "L'incidence des caracteristiques d'une universite sur les resultats professionnels apres le diplome : temoignages de trois cohortes canadiennes recemment diplomees," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2007292f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    7. Christopher Ferrall & Julian Betts & Ross Finnie, 2006. "The Role Of University Characteristics In Determining Post-graduation Outcomes: Panel Evidence From Three Recent Canadian Cohorts," Working Paper 1055, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    8. Arcidiacono, Peter, 2004. "Ability sorting and the returns to college major," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 343-375.
    9. Paolo Buonanno & Dario Pozzoli, 2009. "Early Labour Market Returns to College Subject," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(4), pages 559-588, December.
    10. David McClough & Mary Ellen Benedict, 2017. "Not All Education Is Created Equal: How Choice of Academic Major Affects the Racial Salary Gap," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 62(2), pages 184-205, October.
    11. Ono, Hiroshi, 2000. "College Quality and Earnings in the Japanese Labor Market," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 395, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 11 Mar 2003.
    12. Grove, Wayne A. & Hussey, Andrew, 2014. "Returns to MBA quality: Pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns to peers, faculty, and institution quality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 43-54.
    13. Monks, James, 2000. "The returns to individual and college characteristics: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 279-289, June.
    14. Constantine, J.M., 1998. "The Effect of Historically Black Colleges on Wages of Black Students: an Analysis by Gender," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-48, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    15. Sergey Roshchin & Victor Rudakov, 2015. "Do Starting Salaries for Graduates Measure the Quality of Education? A Review of Studies by Russian and Foreign Authors," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 1, pages 137-181.
    16. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd R. Stinebrickner, 2014. "A Major in Science? Initial Beliefs and Final Outcomes for College Major and Dropout," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(1), pages 426-472.
    17. Eliasson, Kent, 2006. "The Role of Ability in Estimating the Returns to College Choice: New Swedish Evidence," Umeå Economic Studies 691, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    18. Vella, Francis & Gregory, R. G., 1996. "Selection bias and human capital investment: Estimating the rates of return to education for young males," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 197-219, September.
    19. Stacy Berg Dale & Alan B. Krueger, 2002. "Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1491-1527.
    20. Jain, Tarun & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop & Prakash, Nishith & Rakesh, Raghav, 2018. "Labor Market Effects of High School Science Majors in a High STEM Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 11908, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5613. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.