Economic returns to schooling decisions (original) (raw)

Economic Returns to Schooling Decisions. AIR Forum 1979 Paper

1979

The private internii ratk of return tc investments is evaluated in two levels in each of the following four educational Frcgrams: computer science, nursing, nutrition, and social work.'In these fields, a situation occurs in which many bachelor.'s'degree giaduates and community college vocational degree holders perform exactly the sato, work and receive different salaries. The monetary benefit returns to individuals are cilculated by using the cost-benefit analysis method. The method is based on the assumiktion theit the income that an average individual with a sepcific level of education in a.givden field will be earning years later can be-'-' estimated based On the average income currently being earned by people having the same characteristics. Repuns to investment in a bachelor's degree versus a community college vocational degree range : frOm 5.4 percent for nurses to 1H:to 20 percent for computer science cr and social work graduates. It is suggested that these 'results

Essays in labor economics and the economics of education

2010

This dissertation addresses three broad issues within the fields of labor economics and the economics of education: the accumulation of human and information capital, school quality, and policy-relevant analysis of classroom organization. At the secondaryschool level, I document the importance of information capital, or accurate information about postsecondary and labor-market alternatives. At the elementary-school level, I xiii analyze the effect of combination classes and discuss different ways to measure school quality and the importance of these measures to parents of school-aged children. In the first chapter, "Information Capital and Early-Career Wages," I define one measure of information capital acquired by students during high school and develop a framework through which I analyze the effect of this measure on educational attainment, job tenure, and wages. I also investigate the school-level characteristics that influence an individual's stock of information capital. In the second chapter, "Combination Classes and Educational Achievement," I measure the effect of membership in a combination class in first grade on student achievement. I address the selection that occurs when implementing a combination class and find that first graders in 1-2 combinations can be expected to outperform single-grade students on math tests by one-seventh of a standard deviation. In addition, I find no evidence that first graders in schools offering combination classes perform worse than first graders in schools that do not offer such classes. Therefore, I conclude that combination classes may be a Pareto-improving option for school administrators. In the last chapter, "Neighborhood Demographics, School Effectiveness, and Residential Location Choice," I investigate how neighborhood demographics and school effectiveness influence the residential location decisions of parents of different income levels. I find that low-income parents in the San Francisco Bay Area respond more strongly to school effectiveness than to neighborhood demographics, but that the reverse is true for high-income parents.

CHAPTER-4 ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION

2023

Let us judge why the scope of economics of education is dynamic. The contribution in economics of Education during the last four and half decades opened up new areas of research in theories of growth, labour market, public finance and developmental economics. The theories of Social Justice and welfare economics are also incorporated in economics of education. Public policy becomes the major area of research in economics of education. The new subject matters are incorporated in this area at a fast pace. So, the scope of economics of education becomes very dynamic.