Part I. The evolution of job readiness and credentialing in the United States. The college degree : false panacea or freighted promise? -- The arc to the "golden age" ... and emerging decline -- Part II. Innovation and the rise of competitive higher education alternatives. Competitive models :...

We estimate a labor supply model with German data on engineering enrollments and starting salaries. In one model agents have backward looking expectations, in the other rational expectations on future wages. Only the model with backward looking expectations delivers significant coefficients with...