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College Degree for Everyone?

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  • Vitaliy Strohush
  • Justin Wanner

Abstract

We employ data from the March CPS for the period between 1964 and 2011 to compute the present discounted values of a college degree and high school diploma for different percentiles of income distributions in both education categories. We find that for a median income individual net value of a college degree is always positive. At the same time, we show that a sizable fraction of the population who acquired higher education would be better off by not getting a college degree. This fraction depends on the type of institution and opportunity costs of going to college. Our findings are consistent with the recent data on delinquency rates on student loans. Copyright International Atlantic Economic Society 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Vitaliy Strohush & Justin Wanner, 2015. "College Degree for Everyone?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 21(3), pages 261-273, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:iaecre:v:21:y:2015:i:3:p:261-273:10.1007/s11294-015-9527-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11294-015-9527-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Serge Atherwood & Gabriela Sánchez-Soto, 2023. "Does Social Class Matter Equally for the Timely Transition Into and Out of College? Evidence from the NLSY97," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(1), pages 95-128, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Student loans; Return to higher education; Tuition; E62; I00;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General

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