How valuable is education for entrepreneurs’ performance as compared to employees’? What might explain any differences? And does education affect peoples’ occupational choices accordingly? We answer these questions based on a large panel of US labor force participants. We show that...

How valuable are cognitive and social abilities for entrepreneurs’ incomes as compared to employees? We answer three questions: (1) To what extent does a composite measure of ability affect an entrepreneur's earnings relative to employees? (2) Do different cognitive abilities (e.g. math...

Nobel laureates in economics make their most important and creative contributions

Alphabetic name ordering on multi-authored academic papers, which is the convention in the

This paper identifies pivotal factors behind individual decision-making in the transition from high school to post-secondary education in the Netherlands. We apply a multinomial logit framework to individual data on post-secondary education choices. Specifically, our modeling approach...

Studies on the determinants of the demand for higher education typically emphasize the relevance of socio-economic factors, but leave the spatial dimensions of the prospective students’ university choices largely unexplored. In this study, we investigate the determinants of university entrance...

Impact evaluations of development programmes usually focus on a comparison of participants with a control group. However, if the programme generates externalities for non-participants such an approach will capture only part of the programme’s impact. Based on a unique large-scale quantitative...

We develop a simple human capital model for optimum schooling length when earnings are stochastic, and highlight the pivotal role of risk attitudes and the schooling gradient of earnings risk. We use Spanish data to document the gradient and to estimate individual response to earnings risk in...

We analyze the impact of adolescents' friendship relations in their final-year class of high school on subsequent labor market success. Based on a typology of network positions we locate each student within the social system of the school class as either: an <I>isolate</I>, a <I>sycophant</I>, a <I>broker</I> or a...</i></i></i></i>

In the Netherlands, students who want to become a medical specialist have to enrol in a training program which is in limited supply. During the search for a position as trainee (or "junior medical specialist"), they may accept a temporary job as a medical assistant. We use a micro data set to...