IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/15892.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Increasing Time to Baccalaureate Degree in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • John Bound
  • Michael F. Lovenheim
  • Sarah Turner

Abstract

Time to completion of the baccalaureate degree has increased markedly in the United States over the last three decades, even as the wage premium for college graduates has continued to rise. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 and the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, we show that the increase in time to degree is localized among those who begin their postsecondary education at public colleges outside the most selective universities. In addition, we find evidence that the increases in time to degree were more marked amongst low income students. We consider several potential explanations for these trends. First, we find no evidence that changes in the college preparedness or the demographic composition of degree recipients can account for the observed increases. Instead, our results suggest that declines in collegiate resources in the less-selective public sector increased time to degree. Furthermore, we present evidence of increased hours of employment among students, which is consistent with students working more to meet rising college costs and likely increases time to degree by crowding out time spent on academic pursuits.

Suggested Citation

  • John Bound & Michael F. Lovenheim & Sarah Turner, 2010. "Increasing Time to Baccalaureate Degree in the United States," NBER Working Papers 15892, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15892
    Note: ED LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w15892.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Terry T. Ishitani, 2006. "Studying Attrition and Degree Completion Behavior among First-Generation College Students in the United States," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(5), pages 861-885, September.
    2. David Deming & Susan Dynarski, 2008. "The Lengthening of Childhood," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 71-92, Summer.
    3. Stephen L. DesJardins & Dennis A. Ahlburg & Brian P. McCall, 2002. "A Temporal Investigation of Factors Related to Timely Degree Completion," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(5), pages 555-581, September.
    4. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2009. "The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    5. Sarah Turner, 2004. "Going to College and Finishing College.Explaining Different Educational Outcomes," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 13-62, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Patrick Royston, 2004. "Multiple imputation of missing values," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 4(3), pages 227-241, September.
    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. John Bound & Michael F. Lovenheim & Sarah Turner, 2010. "Why Have College Completion Rates Declined? An Analysis of Changing Student Preparation and Collegiate Resources," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 129-157, July.
    2. Arcidiacono, Peter & Aucejo, Esteban & Coate, Patrick & Hotz, V. Joseph, 2012. "Affirmative Action and University Fit: Evidence from Proposition 209," IZA Discussion Papers 7000, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. John Bound & Sarah Turner, 2007. "Understanding the Increased Time to the Baccalaureate Degree," Discussion Papers 06-043, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    4. Vaarma, Matti & Li, Hongxiu, 2024. "Predicting student dropouts with machine learning: An empirical study in Finnish higher education," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Kurlaender, Michal & Jackson, Jacob & Howell, Jessica S. & Grodsky, Eric, 2014. "College course scarcity and time to degree," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 24-39.
    6. Contini, Dalit & Salza, Guido, 2020. "Too few university graduates. Inclusiveness and effectiveness of the Italian higher education system," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Morazes, Jennifer Lynne, 2016. "Educational background, high school stress, and academic success," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 201-209.
    8. Harald Schoen, 2008. "Identity, Instrumental Self-Interest and Institutional Evaluations," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(1), pages 5-29, March.
    9. Julia S. Goldberg, 2011. "Identity Salience and Involvement among Resident and Nonresident Fathers," Working Papers 1323, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    10. J. Mark Ramseyer & Eric Rasmusen, 2013. "Lowering the Bar to Raise the Bar: Licensing Difficulty and Attorney Quality in Japan," Working Papers 2013-12, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    11. Hilde Coffe & Catherine Bolzendahl, 2011. "Gender Gaps in Political Participation Across Sub-Saharan African Nations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(2), pages 245-264, June.
    12. Ronald Mincy & Jennifer Hill & Marilyn Sinkewicz, 2009. "Marriage: Cause or mere indicator of future earnings growth?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 417-439.
    13. von Hinke Kessler Scholder S, 2009. "Genetic Markers as Instrumental Variables: An Application to Child Fat Mass and Academic Achievement," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/25, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    14. Meier, Volker & Schiopu, Ioana, 2020. "Enrollment expansion and quality differentiation across higher education systems," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 43-53.
    15. Görlitz, Katja & Penny, Merlin & Tamm, Marcus, 2022. "The long-term effect of age at school entry on cognitive competencies in adulthood," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 91-104.
    16. Natalia Krüger & Axel McCallum & Víctor Volman, 2020. "Segregación escolar por nivel socioeconómico: disparidades entre las provincias argentinas," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4362, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    17. Cécile Bonneau, 2020. "The Concentration of investment in education in the US (1970-2018)," Working Papers halshs-02875965, HAL.
    18. Anna K Stuck & Marie Méan & Andreas Limacher & Marc Righini & Kurt Jaeger & Hans-Jürg Beer & Joseph Osterwalder & Beat Frauchiger & Christian M Matter & Nils Kucher & Michael Egloff & Markus Aschwande, 2014. "The Adherence to Initial Processes of Care in Elderly Patients with Acute Venous Thromboembolism," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-7, July.
    19. Ethan T. Hunt & Bridget Armstrong & Brie M. Turner-McGrievy & Michael W. Beets & Robert G. Weaver, 2021. "Differences by School Location in Summer and School Monthly Weight Change: Findings from a Nationally Representative Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-12, November.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:15892. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.