School quality and wages /

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Speakman, Robert B., 1966-
Other Authors: Welch, Finis (Thesis advisor)
Format: Thesis eBook
Language:English
Published: [College Station, Tex.] : [Texas A&M University], [2007]
Subjects:
Online Access:Link to OAK Trust copy
Description
Abstract:This dissertation examines the literature that attempts to measure the relationship between school quality and earnings. I begin by developing a simple economic model that predicts that, everything else being equal and with comparisons being made within a market, workers from higher quality schools will have higher earnings among those with the same level of schooling and they will have steeper schooling-earnings gradients.The remainder of this dissertation explores problems that exist in this literature for which no solutions have been presented. These problems include: 1) there doesn't have to be a direct and positive relationship between school quality and earnings; 2) the data suggest that school quality measures are frequently mismatched to workers; 3) most school quality studies include college-trained labor while completely ignoring the quality of the college attended; 4) the omission of college quality from the estimation is especially problematic for studies that attempt to measure the school quality-earnings relationship through differences in schooling-earnings gradients for those educated in different systems; 5) state of birth wage rankings thought to capture a school quality effect are not invariant to the market (state of residence) in which they are evaluated; and 6) the evidence presented herein suggests that interstate migration is selective. These problems undermine the credibility of existing estimates of a school quality earnings relationship.
Item Description:"Major Subject: Economics"
Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Apr. 27, 2007.)
Vita.
Abstract.
Electronic resource.
Format:Mode of access: World Wide Web.
System requirements: World Wide Web access and Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references.