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The Demand for and Return to Education When Education Outcomes Are Uncertain

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  • Altonji, Joseph G

Abstract

This article treats education as a sequential choice that is made under uncertainty. A simple model is used to explore the effects of ability, high school preparation, preferences for schooling, the borrowing rate, and ex post payoffs to college on the probability of various postsecondary college outcomes and the ex ante return to starting college. The model motivates an empirical method of accounting for uncertainty about educational outcomes and for nonlinearity in the relationship between years of education and earnings when estimating the expected return to the first year of college. Copyright 1993 by University of Chicago Press.

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  • Altonji, Joseph G, 1993. "The Demand for and Return to Education When Education Outcomes Are Uncertain," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 48-83, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:v:11:y:1993:i:1:p:48-83
    DOI: 10.1086/298317
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