Although surveys show that traditional ordering of average wages--i.e. higher earnings with higher schooling and concave age-wage profiles--have not changed during the past three decades, the actual size of the wage differentials measured by education or by work experience has varied from peak...

Kevin M. Murphy is the winner of the 1998 John Bates Clark Medal, presented by the American Economic Association every second year to an outstanding economist under the age of forty who is selected for special recognition. He is the George Pratt Schultz Professor of Business Economics and...

A half a century has passed since the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned the doctrine of separate but equal in the realm of public education. This chapter attempts to summarize what we know about the impact of Brown on enrollment patterns and academic and economic...

This chapter examines the literature that attempts to measure the relationship between labor earnings and the average quality of a state's elementary and secondary schools where school quality is approximated by statewide average characteristics like the teacher-pupil ratio. We present evidence...