This paper examines the effects of skill advantages at age six on different types of parental investments, and long-run outcomes up to age 27. We exploit exogenous variation in skills due to school entry rules, combining 20 years of Chilean administrative records with a regression discontinuity...

We test for the signalling hypothesis versus human capital theory using the Wiles test (1974) in a country which has experienced a dramatic increase in the supply of skills. For this purpose, we construct a job match index based on the usefulness of the school-provided skills and the relevance...

We conduct an empirical simulation exercise that gauges the plausible impact of increased rates of college attainment on a variety of measures of income inequality and economic insecurity. Using two different methodological approaches-a distributional approach and a causal parameter approach-we...

Based on a detailed model of the German tax-benefit system, this paper simulates private and fiscal returns to education for college graduates and college dropouts. Completing a five-year college degree is found to be associated with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 14.2% for gross earnings,...

As China's firms upgrade their position in the quality ladder, vocational education may become more important. In this paper, we study returns to secondary vocational education in China paying attention to individual heterogeneity. We use instrumental variables based on geographical and...

We present an equilibrium model with inter-linked frictional labour and marriage markets. Women's flow value of being single is treated as given, and it captures returns from employment. Single unemployed men conduct a so-called constrained sequential job search, and can choose to improve their...

In this paper, we estimate the likelihood that workers without a college degree will earn more than those who completed higher education. The resulting figures are highly relevant to the decision-making process regarding college enrollment. Our approach involves the estimation of probabilistic...

This paper examines the rate of return on higher education to first degrees, master's degrees, and PhDs in Malaysia using previously published data. The purposes of this research are to study and identify whether or not there is a direct link between tertiary education and wages. Barbara...

The value of a college degree is impacted by how it is financed. Using 1968-2011 PSID surveys we construct a synthetic panel of US high school and college graduates and derive a model of their respective incomes, accounting for taxes, unemployment, retirement and mortality. With CRRA utility,...

Previous studies often interpret the positive impact of high-skill human capital on the mean wages of low-skill workers as evidence of human capital externalities. We uncover a distributional wage effect that is difficult to reconcile with standard models of human capital externalities:...