We exploit an exogenous increase in General Educational Development (GED) testing requirements to determine whether raising the difficulty of the test causes students to finish high school rather than drop out and GED certify. We find that a six point decrease in GED pass rates induces a 1.3...

This paper uses multiple data sources and a unified methodology to estimate the trends and levels of the U.S. high school graduation rate. Correcting for important biases that plague previous calculations, we establish that (a) the true high school graduation rate is substantially lower than the...

Using three sources of data, this paper examines the direct economic return to GED certification for both native and immigrant high school dropouts. One data source %u2013 the CPS %u2013 is plagued by non-response and allocation bias from the hot-deck procedure that biases upward the estimated...

Using three sources of data, this paper examines the direct economic return to GED certification for both native and immigrant high school dropouts. One data source -- the CPS -- is plagued by non-response and allocation bias from the hot-deck procedure that biases upward the estimated return to...

The option to obtain a General Education Development (GED) certificate changes the incentives facing high school students. This paper evaluates the effect of three different GED policy innovations on high school graduation rates. A six point decrease in the GED pass rate due to an increase in...

This paper uses multiple data sources and a unified methodology to estimate the trends and levels of the U.S. high school graduation rate. Correcting for important biases that plague previous calculations, we establish that (a) the true high school graduation rate is substantially lower than the...