Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/147878 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10192
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
I take advantage of a sharp discontinuity in the probability of admission to an elite university at the admission score threshold, to estimate causal returns to college education quality. I use a newly constructed dataset, which combines individual administrative records about high school, college admission, college attendance and tax returns. Students with score just above the admission threshold have 52% higher yearly income with respect to just-below-threshold students. This premium is equivalent to a jump from the 44th percentile to the 74th percentile of the income distribution. The richness of the data allows me to explore the counterfactual college career of not admitted students and the potential mechanisms underlying the estimated income premium. I find that students with a just-above-threshold score are less likely to be college dropouts, take six fewer months to graduate, choose different majors and are more likely to have income in the top quartile of the distribution. Cumulated over fifteen years, the time span of income data for my sample, the net premium of attending the elite university amounts to around $120,000.
Subjects: 
education quality
returns to education
human capital
JEL: 
I21
I22
I23
I28
J24
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.