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Skills, Majors, and Jobs: Does Higher Education Respond?

Author

Listed:
  • Johnathan G. Conzelmann
  • Steven W. Hemelt
  • Brad Hershbein
  • Shawn M. Martin
  • Andrew Simon
  • Kevin M. Stange

Abstract

How do college students and postsecondary institutions react to changes in skill demand in the U.S. labor market? We quantify the magnitude and nature of response in the 4-year sector using a new measure of labor demand at the institution-major level that combines online job ads with geographic locations of alumni from a professional networking platform. Within a shift-share setup, we find that the 4-year sector responds. We estimate elasticities for undergraduate degrees and credits centered around 1.3, generally increasing with time horizon. Changes in non-tenure-track faculty allocations and the credits they teach partially mediate this overall response. We provide further evidence that the magnitude of the overall response depends on both student demand and institutional supply-side constraints. Our findings illuminate the nature of educational production in higher education and suggest that policy efforts that aim to align human capital investment with labor demand may struggle to achieve such goals if they target only one side of the market.

Suggested Citation

  • Johnathan G. Conzelmann & Steven W. Hemelt & Brad Hershbein & Shawn M. Martin & Andrew Simon & Kevin M. Stange, 2023. "Skills, Majors, and Jobs: Does Higher Education Respond?," NBER Working Papers 31572, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31572
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    Cited by:

    1. Lipowski, Cäcilia & Salomons, Anna & Zierahn-Weilage, Ulrich, 2024. "Expertise at work: New technologies, new skills, and worker impacts," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-044, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Juan Esteban Carranza & María Marta Ferreyra & Ana Maria Gazmuri, 2023. "The Dynamic Market for Short-Cycle Higher Education Programs," Borradores de Economia 1265, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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