This paper shows how gender-differential career cost can explain why in most of the developed countries women go to college at a higher rate than men but earn less on average. I assume men and women make costly college and career investments but women face an extra cost for career investment...

The level of progression of an individual's educational or labor market career is a potentially important factor for family formation decisions. We address this issue by considering the effects of a particular college admission system on family formation. We show that the admission system...

We study gender differences in decision-making strategy when applying for college using applications data for all college applicants in Ireland over the 2015-17 period. Detailed information on high school subjects and grades enable us to examine how the college choices of equally achieving...

We study gender differences in decision-making strategy when applying for college using applications data for all college applicants in Ireland over the 2015-17 period. Detailed information on high school subjects and grades enable us to examine how the college choices of equally achieving...

Because students rely on their subjective expectations when choosing a college major, understanding this process of expectations formation is crucial for education policy recommendations. This paper focuses on how college students form expectations about various major-specific outcomes. I...

Access to selective universities is highly coveted because of the perception that attending one provides opportunities otherwise difficult to obtain. To broaden access to the state's flagship universities in a manner that does not rely on conventional affirmative action, Texas passed the Top Ten...

Parental education levels demonstrate a robust influence for educational achievement that cascades throughout the educational pipeline. This paper reviews and synthesizes research from multiple disciplines concerning educational pathways that appear to be influenced by parental education levels....

I use a randomized, controlled trial to test the efficacy of a goal-setting exercise to affect undergraduate student outcomes as mediated by their personal motivation — extrinsic versus intrinsic — and the mediating role (if any) played by personality traits and other characteristics....

College admissions should also base their decisions on applicants' income as affirmative action targeting low-income applicants is a powerful policy to reduce intergenerational persistence of earnings and to improve both welfare and aggregate output. We construct an overlapping-generations model...

There is a need to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of higher education in its various aspects, including the area of non-monetary benefits of higher education. Education relates to the wider economic and social effects and human welfare depends partly on earnings but also on...