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The Benefits of Alternatives to Conventional College: Comparing the Labor-Market Returns to For-Profit Schools and Community Colleges

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Abstract

This paper provides novel evidence on the labor-market returns to for-profit postsecondary school and community college attendance. We link administrative records on college attendance with quarterly earnings data for nearly 400,000 students in one state. Five years after enrollment, quarterly earnings conditional on employment exceed earnings in the absence of schooling by 20-29 percent for students attending for-profit schools and 16-27 percent for students attending community colleges. In aggregate, the benefits of attendance generally exceed the costs in both for-profit schools and community colleges. Our analyses suggest the two types of schools serve very different markets, both in terms of the characteristics of students and the fields they study. When we perform matching analyses with comparable students in comparable fields, we do not find that returns are consistently higher in for-profit schools or community colleges.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Jepsen & Peter Mueser & Kenneth Troske & Kyung-Seong Jeon, 2024. "The Benefits of Alternatives to Conventional College: Comparing the Labor-Market Returns to For-Profit Schools and Community Colleges," Working Papers 2407, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    • Handle: RePEc:umc:wpaper:2407
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    Cited by:

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    2. Gordon Hanson & Dani Rodrik & Rohan Sandhu, 2025. "The US Place-Based Policy Supply Chain," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Place-Based Policies, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education

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