This paper examines the roles of specialized versus general skills in explaining variation in the returns to an agriculture degree across majors inside and outside the agricultural industry. The focus on returns by sector of employment is motivated by the finding that most agricultural majors...

For the first 13 years after entry, the hazard rate for firm exits is persistently higher for urban than rural firms. While differences in observed industry market, local market and firm attributes explain some of the rural-urban gap in firm survival, rural firms retain a survival advantage 25%...

A prominent facet of recent changes in agriculture has been the advent of precision breeding techniques. Another has been an increase in the level of information inputs and outputs associated with agricultural production. This paper identifies ways in which these features may complement in...

  We hypothesize that hog production can be characterized by complementarities between new technologies, worker skills and farms size.  Such production processes are consistent with Kremer’s (1993) O-ring production theory in which a single mistake in any one of several complementary...

Across nine transition economies, it is the young, educated, English-speaking workers with the best access to local telecommunications infrastructures that work with computers. These workers earn about 25% more than do workers of comparable observable skills who do not use computers. Controlling...

Students in majors with higher average quantitative GRE scores are less likely to attend graduate school while students in majors with higher average verbal GRE scores are more likely to attend graduate school. This sorting effect means that students whose cognitive skills are associated with...

Students in majors with higher average quantitative GRE scores are less likely to attend graduate school while students in majors with higher average verbal GRE scores are more likely to attend graduate school.  This sorting effect means that students whose cognitive skills are associated with...