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Source: John F. Kennedy School of Government Faculty Research
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Ferguson, Ronald F.
New Evidence on the Growing Value of Skill and Consequences for Racial Disparity and Returns to Schooling
Working Paper R93-34, John F. Kennedy School of Government Faculty Research, Harvard University, September 1993
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: John F. Kennedy School of Government
Keyword(s): Benefits, Fringe; Educational Returns; Human Capital; Racial Differences; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Training; Training, On-the-Job; Wage Differentials; Wage Gap; Wage Levels

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study uses test scores to establish that the market value of basic reading and math skills rose during the 1980's. Further, the rising price of skill accounts for two patterns over which labor economists have puzzled since the late 1980's: growth in the return to schooling for young men and increases in the wage gap between young black and white adult males. The gap in skill between young black and white males was narrowing during the 1980's, but not rapidly enough to offset growth in the price of skill. Hence, disparity rose. Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Panel. Most of the study focuses on one age level in order to avoid ambiguity associated with mixing age groups. Estimating a series of overlapping cross-section regressions, each using three years of data, the paper shows a smooth but nonlinear trend in which most of the increase in the price of skill came in the first half of the decade.
Bibliography Citation
Ferguson, Ronald F. "New Evidence on the Growing Value of Skill and Consequences for Racial Disparity and Returns to Schooling." Working Paper R93-34, John F. Kennedy School of Government Faculty Research, Harvard University, September 1993.