Return to College Education Revisited: Is Relevance Relevant?

46 Pages Posted: 15 Oct 2010

Date Written: October 14, 2010

Abstract

This study examines whether the size of the college earnings premium varies depending on the quality of the match between an individual’s degree field and his/her occupation. The study uses the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to obtain a new measure of the quality of occupational match for a sample of 2,268 young adults with post-secondary degrees from the restricted use High School and Beyond (1980/92) data. The study finds that people whose occupations better match their degree fields earn significantly higher returns to post-secondary schooling. This result is robust to controlling for an extensive set of pre-existing differences among individuals, and to accounting for differences in earnings across post-secondary degree fields.

Keywords: return to schooling, occupational match quality

JEL Classification: J24

Suggested Citation

Yakusheva, Olga, Return to College Education Revisited: Is Relevance Relevant? (October 14, 2010). Economics of Education Review, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1692483

Olga Yakusheva (Contact Author)

Marquette University ( email )

P.O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201
United States

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