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What's the value of an acceptance letter? Using admissions data to estimate the return to college

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  • Öckert, Björn

Abstract

This paper exploits discontinuities and randomness in the college admissions in Sweden in 1982, to estimate the economic return to college in the 1990s. At the time, college admissions were highly selective and applicants were ranked with respect to their formal merits. Admissions were given to those ranked higher than some threshold value. At the margin, applicants were sometimes randomly assigned to college. Exploiting this Regression-Discontinuity design, individuals who were admitted in 1982 are estimated to have about 0.20 years longer college education in 1996. However, the earnings effects for applicants at the margin of admission are insignificant. Controlling for the college admission determinants, the OLS-estimates of the return to college is 1.4 percent in 1991-96. The IV-estimates are not significantly different from the OLS counterparts.

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  • Öckert, Björn, 2010. "What's the value of an acceptance letter? Using admissions data to estimate the return to college," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 504-516, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:29:y:2010:i:4:p:504-516
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    Cited by:

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    2. Maria K. Humlum & Jannie H.G. Kristoffersen & Rune Vejlin, 2012. "Timing of College Enrollment and Family Formation Decisions," Economics Working Papers 2012-01, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    3. Pierre Mouganie, 2020. "Conscription and the Returns to Education: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(3), pages 1112-1139, July.
    4. Justine S. Hastings & Christopher A. Neilson & Seth D. Zimmerman, 2013. "Are Some Degrees Worth More than Others? Evidence from college admission cutoffs in Chile," NBER Working Papers 19241, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Martin Nybom, 2017. "The Distribution of Lifetime Earnings Returns to College," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(4), pages 903-952.
    6. Graetz, Georg & Öckert, Björn & Nordström Skans, Oskar, 2020. "Family background and the responses to higher SAT scores," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108461, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Humlum, Maria Knoth & Kristoffersen, Jannie H.G. & Vejlin, Rune, 2017. "College admissions decisions, educational outcomes, and family formation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 215-230.
    8. Martin Nordin & Gawain Heckley & Ulf‐G. Gerdtham, 2020. "Impact Of A Tertiary Eligibility Threshold On Tertiary Education And Earnings: A Discontinuity Approach," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(1), pages 401-424, January.
    9. John Eric Humphries & Juanna Joensen & Gregory Veramendi, 2017. "College Major Choice: Sorting and Differential Returns to Skills," 2017 Meeting Papers 1623, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Justine Hastings & Christopher A. Neilson & Seth D. Zimmerman, 2015. "The Effects of Earnings Disclosure on College Enrollment Decisions," NBER Working Papers 21300, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Gandil, Mikkel & Leuven, Edwin, 2022. "College admission as a screening and sorting device," Memorandum 2/2022, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    12. Moeeni, Safoura & Wei, Feng, 2022. "The labor market returns to unobserved skills: Evidence from a gender quota," CLEF Working Paper Series 53, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    13. Aguirre, Josefa & Matta, Juan, 2021. "Walking in your footsteps: Sibling spillovers in higher education choices," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. Daly, Moira & Jensen, Mathias Fjællegaard & le Maire, Daniel, 2022. "University Admission and the Similarity of Fields of Study: Effects on Earnings and Skill Usage," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    15. Kim, Taehoon, 2021. "Estimating pecuniary and non-Pecuniary returns to college education for academically marginal students: Evidence from the college enrollment quota policy in south korea," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    16. Kirkebøen, Lars & Leuven, Edwin & Mogstad, Magne, 2014. "Field of Study, Earnings, and Self-Selection," Memorandum 29/2014, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    17. Mellander, Erik, 2016. "On the use of register data in educational science research," Working Paper Series 2016:22, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    18. Liu, Liqun & Neilson, William S., 2011. "High scores but low skills," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 507-516, June.
    19. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2014. "The Returns to College Admission for Academically Marginal Students," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(4), pages 711-754.
    20. Jurajda, Stepán & Münich, Daniel, 2010. "Admission to selective schools, alphabetically," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1100-1109, December.
    21. Heinesen, Eskil, 2018. "Admission to higher education programmes and student educational outcomes and earnings–Evidence from Denmark," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-19.

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