Do non-permanent shocks to local labor market opportunities affect college investment decisions? This paper examines the educational, earnings, and employment responses to temporary fracking-induced labor demand shocks. I find that a boom in fracking production within a county causes a reduction...

We study the impact of graduating in a recession in Flanders (Belgium), i.e. in a rigid labor market. In the presence of a high minimum wage, a typical recession hardly influences the hourly wage of low educated men, but reduces working time and earnings by about 4.5% up to twelve years after...