IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlabec/v13y1995i2p289-308.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

College Selectivity and Earnings

Author

Listed:
  • Loury, Linda Datcher
  • Garman, David

Abstract

This article shows that college performance and selectivity have significant effects on earnings. It suggests that work that does not include college performance overstates the effect of college selectivity for whites and understates it for blacks. While the size of the effect of college selectivity for blacks is larger than for whites, the large black earnings gain is offset for students whose own Scholastic Aptitude Test scores are significantly below the median of the college they attend. This results from the lower probability of graduation for 'mismatched' blacks and the subsequently lower earnings for those who fail to complete college. Copyright 1995 by University of Chicago Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Loury, Linda Datcher & Garman, David, 1995. "College Selectivity and Earnings," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 289-308, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:v:13:y:1995:i:2:p:289-308
    DOI: 10.1086/298375
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/298375
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. See http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JOLE for details.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/298375?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul J. Taubman & Terence Wales, 1974. "Earnings: Higher Education, Mental Ability, and Screening," NBER Chapters, in: Higher Education and Earnings: College as an Investment and Screening Device, pages 1-24, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Wise, David A, 1975. "Academic Achievement and Job Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 350-366, June.
    3. Paul J. Taubman & Terence Wales, 1974. "The Human-Capital Approach to Higher Education," NBER Chapters, in: Higher Education and Earnings: College as an Investment and Screening Device, pages 25-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ethel B. Jones & John D. Jackson, 1990. "College Grades and Labor Market Rewards," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(2), pages 253-266.
    5. Greg J. Duncan & Saul D. Hoffman, 1983. "A New Look at the Causes of the Improved Economic Status of Black Workers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 18(2), pages 268-282.
    6. Terence J. Wales, 1973. "The Effect of College Quality on Earnings: Results from the N B E R-Thorndike Data," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(3), pages 306-317.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dobkin, Carlos & Gil, Ricard & Marion, Justin, 2010. "Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 566-575, August.
    2. Grace Chia & Paul W Miller, 2007. "Tertiary Performance, Field of Study and Graduate Starting Salaries," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 07-12, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    3. Li, Tao & Zhang, Juyan, 2010. "What determines employment opportunity for college graduates in China after higher education reform?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 38-50, March.
    4. repec:osf:osfxxx:8ysgz_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Darren Grant & William Green, 2013. "Grades as incentives," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 1563-1592, June.
    6. Michael A. Insler & Jimmy Karam, 2019. "Do Sports Crowd Out Books? The Impact of Intercollegiate Athletic Participation on Grades," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(1), pages 115-153, January.
    7. Hadavand, Aboozar & Thomas, Sarah M & Almasi, Pooya & Gharehgozli, Orkideh, 2019. "Relevance of Education to Occupation: A New Empirical Approach Based on College Courses," OSF Preprints 8ysgz, Center for Open Science.
    8. Sofia Tano, 2014. "Regional clustering of human capital: school grades and migration of university graduates," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 52(2), pages 561-581, March.
    9. Tafreschi, Darjusch & Thiemann, Petra, 2016. "Doing it twice, getting it right? The effects of grade retention and course repetition in higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 198-219.
    10. Gemus, Jonathan, 2010. "College Achievement and Earnings," Working Paper Series 2010:1, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    11. Berhman, J-R & Kletzer, L & Constantine, J & McPherson, M & Schapiro, M-O, 1996. "The Impact of College Quality on Wages : Are There Differences Among Demographic Groups?," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-38, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    12. Kevin P. Belanger & Angela K. Dills & Rey Hernández-Julián & Kurt W. Rotthoff, 2019. "Class Size, Course Spacing, and Academic Outcomes," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(2), pages 301-320, April.
    13. Michael J. Hilmer, 2002. "Human Capital Attainment, University Quality, and Entry‐Level Wages for College Transfer Students," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(2), pages 457-469, October.
    14. Bartosz Kurek & Ireneusz Górowski, 2020. "Importance of Gender, Location of Secondary School, and Professional Experience for GPA—A Survey of Students in a Free Tertiary Education Setting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-15, November.
    15. Martin Gervais & Nicolas L. Ziebarth, 2019. "Life After Debt: Postgraduation Consequences Of Federal Student Loans," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(3), pages 1342-1366, July.
    16. Pope, Devin G., 2008. "Benefits of bilingualism: Evidence from Mormon missionaries," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 234-242, April.
    17. Oswald, Yvonne & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2014. "Learning for a bonus: How financial incentives interact with preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 52-61.
    18. Dugan, K. & Mullin, C.H. & Siegfried, J.J., 2000. "Undergraduate Financial Aid and Subsequent Giving Behavior," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-57, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    19. Long, Mark C., 2010. "Changes in the returns to education and college quality," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 338-347, June.
    20. Palifka, Bonnie J., 2009. "Personality and income in Mexico: Supervisor assessments vs. self-assessments," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 92-106, February.
    21. Stacy Berg Dale & Alan B. Krueger, 2002. "Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1491-1527.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:v:13:y:1995:i:2:p:289-308. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JOLE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.