The chapters in this volume were designed to cover the broad range of existing research and to suggest productive lines of development. However, even the relatively short production lags in these volumes imply that a number of new and exciting works are only hinted at in the chapters. In short,...

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...

The "human capital earnings function," in which earnings are expressed as a quadratic in potential experience, is probably the most widely accepted empirical specification in economics. In spite of its widespread acceptance, the human capital earnings function provides a very poor approximation...

During the last twenty-five years, annual hours worked by prime aged men fell by the equivalent of six forty-hour workweeks. The reduction was more pronounced among those younger than among mid-age workers, among black men than among white men, and among those with less schooling. Thus hours...