Many studies find a notable return to college quality. Dale and Krueger (2002, 2011) only do until they address selection bias concerns by proxying for ambition and by matching students with similar admission outcomes but different matriculation decisions. Although we employ similar...

Increasingly researchers include information about noncognitive abilities in their analyses of similar people's educational choices and subsequent labor market outcomes. We contribute to this literature by considering the dual roles of confidence in one's abilities and noncognitive skills and...

Focused on human capital, economists typically explain about half of the gender earnings gap. For a national sample of MBAs, we account for 82 percent of the gap by incorporating noncognitive skills (e.g., confidence and assertiveness) and preferences regarding family, career, and jobs. Those...