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Is a Dream Deferred a Dream Denied? College Enrollment and Time-Varying Opportunity Costs

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  • Francisco Perez-Arce

Abstract

A public college randomly assigns applicants into a group that can enroll immediately and a group that can do so only after 1 year. One and a half years after the first group enrolled, individuals in that group were 19 percentage points more likely to be enrolled than those who had to wait. I present a model of educational decision making that predicts a substantial effect of deferral on attainment only when opportunity costs (wages) can vary across time within individuals. I estimate the model to project the long-term effect of deferred admission on attainment for different groups of applicants.

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  • Francisco Perez-Arce, 2015. "Is a Dream Deferred a Dream Denied? College Enrollment and Time-Varying Opportunity Costs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(1), pages 33-61.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/677390
    DOI: 10.1086/677390
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    Cited by:

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    2. de Roux, Nicolás & Riehl, Evan, 2022. "Disrupted academic careers: The returns to time off after high school," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

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