Search Results
Title: Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy
Resulting in 1 citation.
| 1. |
Kahn, Lisa B. |
|
Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy SSRN Working Paper, Social Science Research Network, September 12, 2006. Also: http://ssrn.com/abstract=702463 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); College Graduates; Human Capital; Labor Force Participation; Occupational Attainment; Occupational Prestige; Wage Effects Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. [First Draft: March, 2003]. This paper studies the labor market experiences of white male college graduates as a function of economic conditions at time of college graduation. I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth whose respondents graduated college between 1979 and 1988 and are followed for 14 to 23 years after college graduation. I use both national and state variation in economic conditions at time of college graduation to identify the effect. Because timing and location of college graduation could potentially be affected by economic conditions, I also instrument for these variables using age and state of residence at age 14. I find large, negative wage effects to graduating in a worse economy which persist for the entire period studied. I find that cohorts who graduate in worse economies are in lower level occupations and this explains a portion of the wage effect. There is slightly higher propensity to attain a graduate or professional degree among those who graduated in worse economies, while labor supply is unaffected. I analyze several theories predicting long-run wage effects and find that both occupational attainment differences and disparities in task-specific human capital investment are consistent with the data. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Kahn, Lisa B. "Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy." SSRN Working Paper, Social Science Research Network, September 12, 2006. |