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Trends in Quality Adjusted Skill Premia in the US, 1960-2000

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Abstract

This paper presents new evidence that increases in college enrollment lead to a decline in the average quality of college graduates between 1960 and 2000, resulting in a decrease of 6 percentage points in the college premium. We show that although a standard demand and supply framework can qualitatively account for the trend in the college and age premia over this period, substantial quantitative adjustments still need to be made to account for changes in quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Carneiro, Pedro, 2010. "Trends in Quality Adjusted Skill Premia in the US, 1960-2000," CEPR Discussion Papers 8108, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8108
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David Card & Thomas Lemieux, 2001. "Can Falling Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 116(2), pages 705-746.
    2. Pedro Carneiro & James J. Heckman & Edward J. Vytlacil, 2011. "Estimating Marginal Returns to Education," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2754-2781, October.
    3. Bishop, John Hillman, 1989. "Is the Test Score Decline Responsible for the Productivity Growth Decline?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 178-197, March.
    4. Murnane, Richard J & Willett, John B & Levy, Frank, 1995. "The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(2), pages 251-266, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Carneiro & Michael Lokshin & Nithin Umapathi, 2017. "Average and Marginal Returns to Upper Secondary Schooling in Indonesia," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 16-36, January.
    2. Flavio Cunha & Fatih Karahan & Ilton Soares, 2011. "Returns to Skills and the College Premium," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(s1), pages 39-86, August.
    3. Ross, Matthew, 2014. "Skill Biased Technical Change: Wage Effects from a Panel of Occupational Task Measures," MPRA Paper 63732, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Apr 2015.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    College premium; Composition effects; Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General

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