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Differences in Employment Outcomes for College Town Stayers and Leavers

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  • Winters, John V.

    (Iowa State University)

Abstract

Areas surrounding colleges and universities are often able to build their local stock of human capital by retaining recent graduates in the area after they finish their education. This paper classifies 41 U.S. metropolitan areas as "college towns" and investigates differences in employment outcomes between college graduates who stay in the college town where they obtained their degree and college graduates who leave after completing their degree. We find that college town stayers experience less favorable employment outcomes along multiple dimensions. On average, stayers earn lower annual and hourly wages and work in less educated occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Winters, John V., 2012. "Differences in Employment Outcomes for College Town Stayers and Leavers," IZA Discussion Papers 6723, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6723
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    Cited by:

    1. John V. Winters, 2017. "Do earnings by college major affect graduate migration?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 59(3), pages 629-649, November.
    2. Kidd, Michael & O'Leary, Nigel C. & Sloane, Peter J., 2014. "Should I Stay or Should I Go? An Investigation of Graduate Regional Mobility in the UK and its Impact upon Early Career Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 8325, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Kidd, Michael P. & O'Leary, Nigel & Sloane, Peter, 2017. "The impact of mobility on early career earnings: A quantile regression approach for UK graduates," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 90-102.
    4. Maier, Michael F. & Sprietsma, Maresa, 2016. "Does it pay to move? Returns to regional mobility at the start of the career for tertiary education graduates," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-060, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Christelle Khalaf & G. Jason Jolley & Candi Clouse, 2022. "The Economic Impact of Small Colleges on Local Economies: A Guide to Attainable Data and Best Practices," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 36(1), pages 17-32, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    college towns; migration; human capital; education; wages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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