This paper examines the economic and empirical foundations of the aggregate evidence on the effect of schooling quality on earnings. A common framework is presented which nests all previous studies as special cases. We discuss two crucial identifying assumptions and test them. The first...

This paper investigates the economic and empirical foundations of the evidence relating earnings to schooling quality. We replicate the Card-Krueger model for Census years 1970, 1980 and 1990 and find that it consistently produces a strong relationship between schooling quality and the rate of...

This paper develops and applies semiparametric econometric methods to estimate the form of selection bias that arises from using nonexperimental comparison groups to evaluate social programs and to test the identifying assumptions that justify three widely-used classes of estimators and our...

Semiparametric methods are developed to estimate the bias that arises from using nonexperimental comparison groups to evaluate social programs and to test the identifying assumptions that justify matching, selection models and the method of difference in differences. Using data from an...

The internal rate of return to schooling is a fundamental economic parameter that is often used to assess whether expenditure on education should be increased or decreased. This paper considers alternative approaches to estimating marginal internal rates of return for different schooling levels....

The probability of selection into treatment plays an important role in matching and selection models. However, this probability can often not be consistently estimated, because of choice-based sampling designs with unknown sampling weights. This note establishes that the selection and matching...

The probability of selection into treatment plays an important role in matching and selection models. However, this probability can often not be consistently estimated, because of choice-based sampling designs with unknown sampling weights. This note establishes that the selection and matching...

This paper considers the interpretation of "Mincer rates of return." We test and reject the Mincer model. It fails to track the time series of true returns. We show how repeated cross section and panel data improves the ability of analysts to estimate the ex ante and ex post marginal rate of...