Has the College Wage Premium Continued to Rise? Evidence from Multiple U.S. Surveys

34 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2018 Last revised: 18 Nov 2021

See all articles by Jared Ashworth

Jared Ashworth

Pepperdine University

Tyler Ransom

University of Oklahoma; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract

This paper examines trends in the college wage premium (CWP) by birth cohort across the five major household surveys in the United States: the Census/ACS, CPS, NLSY, PSID, and SIPP. We document a flattening in the CWP for birth cohorts 1978 and onward in each survey and even a decline for birth cohorts 1980–1985 in the NLSY and SIPP. We discuss potential reasons for this finding and show that the empirical discrepancy is not a function of differences in composition across surveys. Our results provide crucial context for the vast economic literatures that use these surveys to measure returns to skill, and intertemporal changes in those returns.

Keywords: college wage premium, returns to education

JEL Classification: I26, J30

Suggested Citation

Ashworth, Jared and Ransom, Tyler, Has the College Wage Premium Continued to Rise? Evidence from Multiple U.S. Surveys. IZA Discussion Paper No. 11657, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3217473 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3217473

Jared Ashworth (Contact Author)

Pepperdine University

24255 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA 90263
United States

Tyler Ransom

University of Oklahoma ( email )

729 Elm Avenue
Norman, OK 73019-2103
United States

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

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

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
59
Abstract Views
349
Rank
648,767
PlumX Metrics