Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185117 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11657
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
college wage premium
returns to education
JEL: 
I26
J30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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