Draft-lottery estimates of the causal effects of Vietnam-era military service using 2000 census data show marked schooling gains for veterans. We argue that these gains can be attributed to Vietnam veterans’ use of the GI Bill rather than draft avoidance behavior. At the same time, draft...

Information about teachers' effectiveness at the hiring stage is particularly scarce despite its importance for personnel decisions. Using the German setting of teacher training, I investigate the relationship of teachers' pre-service cognitive and pedagogical skills as measured by two state...

The paper uses data from a large representative survey of Hungarian higher education graduates (DPR 2010) to study the early labour market effects of field of study and college quality. Propensity score matching average treatment effect method is used to reveal the effect of the field of study,...

This study examines the consequences of college students pursuing degree programs that do not align with the tracks and strands they selected in senior high school. We utilize a unique dataset that links admissions and enrollment records from the University of the Philippines Diliman to...

This paper studies the impact of exam luck on individuals’ education and labor market success. We leverage unique features of the Norwegian education system that produce random variation in the content of the exams taken by students at the end of high school. Lucky students take exams in...

We study the labor market returns to a State guaranteed loan used to finance university degrees in Chile. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that marginally eligible students forego vocational education in favor of universities but reduce their probability of graduation. Despite...

Given a discontinuity in the class assignment of a flagship university in Brazil, we find that the relative disadvantage students face in the better class reduces their absolute performance. Although their future earnings are unaffected, these students are more willing to switch majors and less...

We investigate the short- and long-term effects of economic conditions at high-school graduation as a source of exogenous variation in the labor-market opportunities of potential college entrants. Exploiting business cycle fluctuations across birth cohorts for 28 developed countries, we find...

I take advantage of a sharp discontinuity in the probability of admission to an elite university at the admission score threshold, to estimate causal returns to college education quality. I use a newly constructed dataset, which combines individual administrative records about high school,...

Spence (1973) noted that individuals' choice of educational quantity — measured by years of schooling — may stem partially from a desire to signal their ability to the labor market. This paper asks if individuals' choice of educational quality — measured by college reputation — may...