Despite tremendous recent interest in the subject of student debt by both researchers and policymakers, little is known about how the distribution of college graduate debt has been evolving and what factors can explain it. We use National Postsecondary Student Aid Study data from 1990 through...

Hollenbeck, using a combined qualitative/quantitative approach, estimates the linkage between workplace literacy programs and the reason for their existence - increased productivity requirements. He utilizes in-depth case studies as well as a large database to look at the costs and benefits of...

This paper focuses on one of the potential benefits to improving the Nation's literacy the economic payoffs. A more literate workforce provides economic benefits to the members of the workforce themselves, to employers, and to society. Workers who improve their basic skills through participation...

Since their inception in 1991, the number of and the student enrollment in charter schools have burgeoned. However, little attention has been paid to their effects on student achievement. Proponents hypothesize direct and indirect positive impacts of charter schools on student achievement. The...

Public policymakers and program administrators often face decisions that impact the retirement incomes of individuals. An important question that these decision-makers may wish to address concerns the distributional impacts of the programmatic changes under consideration. Who (what population...

This paper examines linkages between disability and health status and the returns to education and basic skills training. It bases analyses on two separate data sources: wave 3 from the 1993 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the 1992 National Adult Literacy...

The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) is intended to stimulate the employment of individuals who are members of certain groups of the labor force by providing a wage subsidy (in the form of a tax credit) to employers of recently-hired eligible workers. This intervention into the labor market has...

This paper reviews the evidence on the effectiveness of individual merit pay systems for teachers on student achievement, and it presents new empirical results based on a system established within a collective bargaining environment. While many merit pay systems have been established in school...

This paper discusses the role of public policy in the skills development system of the U.S. It further examines the implications of that policy for the skill development and career progression of black workers. The paper describes the current "system" for skills development in the United States...