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Title: Estimating the Education-Earnings Equation Using Geographic Variation
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Doyle, William R.
Skinner, Benjamin T.
Estimating the Education-Earnings Equation Using Geographic Variation
Economics of Education Review 53 (August 2016): 254-267.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775715300303
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): College Enrollment; Earnings; Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; Geocoded Data; Geographical Variation

We expand on the literature on the causal impact of postsecondary education on earnings by introducing a richer set of location-based measures as instruments for years of education. Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, 1997, we implement six different sets of instruments based on geographic variation: presence of a four-year or two-year college in the county, inverse log distance to in-state two-year colleges, distance-weighted tuition and distance-weighted enrollment at in-state two-year colleges, and inverse log distance to all colleges. We find that these alternative measures yield differing estimates of the impact of educational attainment on earnings. Using our preferred measure of geographic variation, one additional year of postsecondary attainment results in a 9.5% increase in yearly earnings. We find a larger impact of postsecondary attainment for women, and no measurable impact of postsecondary attainment for men.
Bibliography Citation
Doyle, William R. and Benjamin T. Skinner. "Estimating the Education-Earnings Equation Using Geographic Variation." Economics of Education Review 53 (August 2016): 254-267.