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Author: Coger, Justin
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Coger, Justin |
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Two Essays on the Economics of Education and Inequality Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Delaware, 2022 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Attitudes; Gender Differences; High School Curriculum; Income Distribution; Positive Affect (see Happiness/Optimism); Racial Equality/Inequality; STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics); Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Wage Differentials; Wage Gap Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. With the first essay, I estimate the effects of high school advanced mathematics credits and mathematics SAT scores on the percentile rank of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) respondents on the income distribution of their age peers and the income of the NLSY97 adults by quantile in 2019. I utilize data on high school advanced mathematics credits, SAT mathematics scores, and income from the NLSY97. This essay contributes to the literature on the economic returns to high school mathematics coursework. Previous work has not examined the effects of advanced math credits and SAT math scores on the two outcomes that I examine. I find significant positive effects of advanced math credits on income percentile rank and income by quantile. I also find statistically significant effects of three different measures of exposure to STEM reform on the two labor market outcomes. The results have implications for educators and policy makers hoping to emphasize the importance of developing quantitative skills in preparation for the labor market. The second essay in the dissertation estimates racial wage differentials among college graduates across academic majors. I examine the combined effects of positive attitudes towards hard work and the selectivity of respondents' undergraduate institutions on the wages of graduates and the racial wage differentials. I use data on respondents from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) and Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions to determine the magnitude of unexplained wage differentials between white graduates and Latino, mixed-race, and Black (grouped together as "marginalized") graduates. I find substantial wage gaps between the wages of the white and marginalized graduates, especially when decomposing differences between the wages of white men, marginalized graduates (both men and women), and marginalized women. The interaction between positive attitudes towards hard work and college selectivity contributes the most toward the unexplained difference in returns to characteristics between the two groups analyzed. This essay contributes to the extensive literature on wage differentials by providing another explanation for the existence of wage differentials between white and marginalized college graduates: differences in the returns to positive attitudes towards hard work and attendance of selective colleges. |
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Bibliography Citation
Coger, Justin. Two Essays on the Economics of Education and Inequality. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Delaware, 2022. |