In this paper, I explore the ability-earnings relationships semiparametrically. I find evidence of nonlinearities in these relationships which vary across levels of schooling, and argue that ability-sorting into higher education creates problems for accurately identifing the return to schooling...

In an important and influential paper, Card and Krueger argued that proxies for school quality positively affect the rate of return to future education. In this paper, we analyze a variant of the Card and Krueger model using a hierarchical Bayesian approach and school-level quality data from the...

We consider two types of consumers, educated and uneducated, with each preferring a different variety of goods. A decisive set of persons can impose compulsory education on all. We find conditions under which educated persons will want to impose compulsory education, and conditions under which...

High inequality in human capital may result in appropriation. In anticipation, the rich may favor policies which induce a more equal distribution of human capital, such as income transfers and mandatory schooling. This paper compares several such alternatives. We find that mandatory schooling...