Post-Secondary Education and Information on Labor Market Prospects: A Randomized Field Experiment

55 Pages Posted: 12 Oct 2015

See all articles by Sari Pekkala Kerr

Sari Pekkala Kerr

Charles River Associates (CRA)

Tuomas Pekkarinen

Aalto University; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); VATT Institute for Economic Research

Matti Sarvimäki

Aalto University - Department of Economics; Government of the Republic of Finland - VATT Institute for Economic Research

Roope Uusitalo

Uppsala University - Department of Economics; IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation; Government of the Republic of Finland - VATT Institute for Economic Research; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

We examine the impact of an information intervention offered to 97 randomly chosen high schools in Finland. Graduating students in treatment schools were surveyed and given information on the labor market prospects associated with detailed post-secondary programs. A third of the students report that the intervention led them to update their beliefs. Experimental estimates suggest that it also affected the application behavior of the least informed students. However, this group of affected students is not sufficiently large for the intervention to have an average impact on applications or enrollment.

Keywords: education, information, earnings, randomized field experiments

JEL Classification: J24, I23

Suggested Citation

Pekkala Kerr, Sari and Pekkarinen, Tuomas and Sarvimäki, Matti and Uusitalo, Roope, Post-Secondary Education and Information on Labor Market Prospects: A Randomized Field Experiment. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9372, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2672158 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2672158

Sari Pekkala Kerr (Contact Author)

Charles River Associates (CRA) ( email )

1201 F. St. NW
Ste. 700
Washington, DC 20004
United States

Tuomas Pekkarinen

Aalto University ( email )

P.O. Box 21210
Helsinki, 00101
Finland

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

VATT Institute for Economic Research ( email )

Matti Sarvimäki

Aalto University - Department of Economics ( email )

PO Box 1210
FI-00101 Helsinki
Finland

HOME PAGE: http://www.aalto-econ.fi/sarvimaki

Government of the Republic of Finland - VATT Institute for Economic Research ( email )

Arkadiankatu 7
P.O Box 1279
Helsinki, FIN-00531
Finland

Roope Uusitalo

Uppsala University - Department of Economics ( email )

Box 513
SE-75120 Uppsala
Sweden

IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation

Box 513
751 20 Uppsala
Sweden

Government of the Republic of Finland - VATT Institute for Economic Research

Arkadiankatu 7
P.O Box 1279
Helsinki, FIN-00531
Finland

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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