This paper studies how college major choices shape earnings and fertility outcomes. Using administrative data that link students' preferences, random assignment to majors, and post-college outcomes, we estimate the causal pecuniary and nonpecuniary returns to different fields of study. We...

This study investigates the impact of inflation on human capital investment decisions. Using a specially designed survey we estimate the causal effect of recent price level increases on the graduation plans of over 1,200 U.S. university students. We find that inflation caused over half of the...

We estimate monetary wage returns to academic-track education, Germany’s elite secondary school type granting university entrance. Because academic-track attendance and subsequent university education are institutionally linked, we disentangle their contributions using a causal mediation...

An extensive literature has documented the incentive effect of emigration prospects in terms of human capital accumulation at origin. Less attention has been paid to the impact on specific educational choices. Using novel data from graduates from the University of Lorraine (France) we find that...

We study the distributional effects of remote learning using a novel approach combining preference data from a conjoint survey with administrative records. Experimentally derived preferences account for selection into remote learning and treatment effect heterogeneity. We validate the approach...

This study is the first to analyse the determinants and wage impacts of vertical educational mismatches in the wage sector in Indonesia. This study is also the first to examine the wage effect of vertical educational mismatch based on the fields of study, gender, and spatial conditions of the...

International and Irish studies have indicated negative trends in the mental health and wellbeing of young people over recent years. Indeed, the most recent wave of the Health Behaviour of School-Aged Children study shows that Ireland ranked 24 out of 36 countries on overall adolescent mental...

We estimate the causal effect of attending elite schools in England, Scotland, and Wales on human capital and labor market outcomes for cohorts of children from the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study. For identification, we employ a nonparametric...

Do reciprocal workers have higher returns to employer-sponsored training? Using a field experiment with random assignment to training combined with survey information on workers' reciprocal inclinations, the results show that reciprocal workers reciprocate employers' training investments by...

We estimate the effect of receiving a higher grade on an academic high school exit exam on labor-market outcomes in adulthood. Identification is based on comparing students on different sides of grade cutoffs. Using nationwide Finnish register data, we find that better grades lead to higher...

This paper estimates the returns to education in Arkansas-one of the last states to extend compulsory schooling-using ACS 2023 data and the 1987 Compulsory Schooling Law (CSL) reform as an instrument. OLS estimates imply returns of 9.5-10.4 percent per year of schooling. The CSL reform increased...

How do students' earnings expectations differ by being the first in their family to attend university (FiF) and how do they affect field of study choice? We leverage unique survey and administrative data to document sizable gaps in expected earnings between FiF and non-FiF students. Our data can...

This paper examines the private returns to education in the context of heterogeneous labour markets, using Peru as a case study. While education is widely considered a key driver of individual earnings and economic growth, its actual returns may be constrained by structural features of labour...

Given data on a scalar random variable 𝑌, a prediction set for 𝑌 with miscoverage level 𝛼 is a set of values for 𝑌 that contains a randomly drawn 𝑌 with probability 1 - 𝛼, where 𝛼 ∈ (0, 1). Among all prediction sets that satisfy this coverage property, the oracle...

We analyze the initial job-market matching of new US college graduates with a large-scale audit study conducted during 2016 and 2017, in which 36,880 résumés of college seniors were submitted to online job postings for business-related positions. We simulate the experience of US college...

This study examines the impact of economic conditions at college entry on post-graduation labor market outcomes, focusing on behavioral responses related to job market preparation and career advancement. Exploiting variation in regional unemployment rates within college entry cohorts, we utilize...

This paper analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 recession on the rate of return to schooling for twenty industries in Pennsylvania. Using data from the American Community Survey 2011-2021, we find the rate of return to schooling declined by 0.3 percentage points during COVID years from its...

This paper studies how college major choices shape earnings and fertility outcomes. Using administrative data that link students’ preferences, random assignment to majors, and post-college outcomes, the researchers estimate the causal pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns to different fields of...

This paper provides the first experimental evidence on the long-term effects of work-study programs, leveraging a randomized lottery design from a national program in Uruguay. Participation leads to a persistent 11 percent increase in formal labor earnings seven years after the program, driven...

In Poland, between 2005 and 2019, the share of the employed with tertiary education among men increased by about 10 percentage points and among women by about 18 percentage points. We study the impact of this change on relative income poverty and income inequality using a microsimulation...

We study the wage effects of an expansion of for-profit preschools in Sweden, which followed after a reform in 2006 removed municipalities' right to veto private entry. The expansion decreased preschool employers' monopsony power by increasing the number of alternative employers. We use a...

Much of the data collected in education is effectively thrown away. Students answer individual test questions, but administrators and researchers only see aggregate performance. All the item-level data are lost. Ex ante it is not clear this destroys much useful information, since the aggregate...

We evaluate the short- and long-run effects of a large conditional cash transfer program that paid students to remain in full-time education beyond the compulsory school-leaving age. The Education Maintenance Allowance paid teenagers from low-income families in the United Kingdom up to £30 per...

The occurrence of unexpected shocks, such as natural disasters, that destroy physical capital could affect the perception of returns to investment in human capital. This paper tests this hypothesis using a survey conducted in Mozambique while Cyclone Idai hit the country in March 2019. A...

Since the 1990s, the Czech Republic has witnessed a significant increase in educational attainment, leading to a rise in educational mismatch. This study investigates the prevalence of vertical and horizontal educational mismatch using data from surveys conducted in 2011 and 2022 on Czech prime...

We estimate the causal effect of schooling on log earnings using instrumental variables (IV), addressing the endogeneity of schooling by using father's education as an instrument. The IV estimate implies a return of approximately 7.7 percent per additional year of schooling. First-stage and...

We use data from a Norwegian field experiment where young students were taught mathematics in small, homogenous groups to investigate how treatment effects varied across middle-achieving students dependent on their rank order and their tutors’ instructional practices. We find that individuals...

Substantial and persistent differences in learning outcomes between schools largely caused by school segregation is a recurrent issue in many countries and is seen as a threat against equality of opportunity. Compensatory resource allocation policies are sometimes used to mitigate this problem,...