Does it pay to attend a for-profit college? Vertical and horizontal stratification in higher education

Despite the recent growth of for-profit colleges, scholars are only beginning to understand the labor market consequences of attending these institutions. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I find that for-profit associate’s degree holders encounter lower hourly earnings than associate’s degree holders educated at public or private, nonprofit colleges, and earnings that are not significantly different than high school graduates. However, individuals who complete a bachelor’s degree by attending college in either the for-profit or nonprofit sectors encounter positive returns. These findings, robust to model selection, suggest that the distinction between for-profit and nonprofit colleges constitutes an important axis in the horizontal dimension of education at the sub-baccalaureate level, and complicate notions of vertical stratification such that higher levels of educational attainment do not necessarily guarantee a wage premium.     

When everyone goes to college: The causal effect of college expansion on earnings

In this study, we estimate the causal effect of college expansion on earnings using the example of South Korea in the 1990s where the college enrollment rate increased from just over thirty percent to over eighty percent over a fifteen years period. We compare the pre-expansion cohort and the post-expansion cohort in order to identify those who would attend college because of the expansion but would not attend otherwise (compliers). We, then, estimate compliers’ earnings gain from the college expansion relative to the earnings changes of two control groups: those who either would or would not go to college regardless of college expansion (always-takers and never-takers). We find a striking gendered pattern; for men, the earnings return to college expansion is moderate and mostly driven by the increasing skill price, whereas, for women, the return is significantly large even net of the skill price change.     

Similarity in peer college preferences: New evidence from texas

In this paper, I use survey data from high school students in Texas to examine the magnitude of peer correlation in college preferences and choices. In this survey, respondents (and their classmates) recorded their preferences for attending specific colleges, and a follow up survey recorded their college enrollment decisions. This paper uses this information to present the first empirical examination of whether individuals who report preferences for “popular” colleges are more likely to attend their preferred college. The rich data set allows the use of often unavailable information such as distance to college, and the construction of the “popularity” variable allows the use of school-level fixed effects. Results indicate that individuals with 10 percentage points more classmates with matching college preferences are 3 percentage points more likely to enroll in their preferred college.     

Gender differences in the earnings produced by a middle range education: The case of Canadian ‘colleges’

In this paper we use data on consecutive cohorts of recent graduates from community colleges or community college-like institutions to address the following questions about the gender earnings gap: i) What was the trend in the gender earnings gap for these recent graduates? ii) What role in the observed trends in the gender earnings gap was played by occupational demand? iii) How and to what extent did the domestic division of labour contribute to the gender earnings gap in this young sample? We find that the gap fell then rose, that occupational demand played a role in these shifts, and that the domestic division of labour did indeed contribute to the gap in this young sample. Furthermore, our results point to a process of cumulation of factors that increase the earnings gap which has both substantive and methodological implications.     

Exploring the spatial wage penalty for women: Does it matter where you live?

Inequality between men and women has decreased over the past four decades in the US, but wage inequality among groups of women has increased. As metropolitan women’s earnings grew by 25% over the past four decades, nonmetropolitan women’s earnings only grew by 15%. In the current study we draw on data from the Current Population Survey to analyze the spatial wage gap among women. We explore differences in the spatial wage gap by education, occupation, and industry. Regression models that control for marriage, motherhood, race, education, region, age, and work hours indicate that metropolitan women earn 17% more per hour than nonmetropolitan women. Nonmetropolitan women earn less than metropolitan women who live in central cities and outside central cities. The gap in metropolitan-nonmetropolitan wages is higher for more educated women than for less educated women. The wage gap is only 5% for women without a high school degree, but it is 15% for women with a college degree and 26% for women with an advanced degree. Nonmetropolitan college graduates are overrepresented in lower-paying occupations and industries. Metropolitan college graduates, however, are overrepresented in higher-paying occupations and industries, such as professional services and finance.     

Broken promise of college? New educational sorting mechanisms for intergenerational association in the 21st century

Previous studies have shown that intergenerational socioeconomic association becomes weaker as children's education level increases and is negligible among college graduates. A college degree is known as the great equalizer for intergenerational socioeconomic mobility. Recent studies, however, reported that the strong intergenerational association reemerges among advanced degree holders although it stays weak among BA-only holders. Despite the substantial theoretical importance and policy implications, the mechanisms behind the reemergence of the intergenerational association at the post-baccalaureate level have been less studied. In this paper, we examine the association between parents' education and children's earnings using the 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017 National Survey of College Graduates data. Our results show that the strong intergenerational socioeconomic immobility among advanced degree holders is fully attributable to three educational sorting mechanisms: children from high-SES families (1) obtain expensive and financially rewarding advanced degrees, (2) attend selective institutions and major in hyper-lucrative fields of study such as law and medicine in graduate school, and (3) complete their education at a younger age and enjoy income growth over more years in the labor market. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

No place like home? Familism and Latino/a–white differences in college pathways

Recent research has argued that familism, defined as a cultural preference for privileging family goals over individual goals, may discourage some Latino/a youth from applying to and attending college, particularly if they must leave home (Desmond and López Turley, 2009). Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study, we find that Latino/a students and parents indeed have stronger preferences than white students and parents for living at home during college. For students, most differences in preferences for proximate colleges are explained by socioeconomic status, academic achievement and high school/regional differences. Moreover, controlling for socioeconomic background and prior achievement explains most racial/ethnic gaps in college application and attendance among high school graduates, suggesting that familism per se is not a significant deterrent to college enrollment above and beyond these more primary factors. However, results indicate generational differences; cultural factors may contribute to racial/ethnic gaps in parental preferences for children to remain at home.     

Math-oriented fields of study and the race gap in graduation likelihoods at elite colleges

This study examines the relationship between chosen field of study and the race gap in college completion among students at elite colleges. Fields of study are characterized by varying institutional arrangements, which impact the academic performance of students in higher education. If the effect of fields on graduation likelihoods is unequal across racial groups, then this may account for part of the overall race gap in college completion. Results from a large sample of students attending elite colleges confirm that fields of study influence the graduation likelihoods of all students, above and beyond factors such as students’ academic and social backgrounds. This effect, however, is asymmetrical: relative to white students, the negative effect of the institutional arrangements of math-oriented fields on graduation likelihood is greater for black students. Therefore, the race gap is larger within math-oriented fields than in other fields, which contributes to the overall race gap in graduation likelihoods at these selective colleges. These results indicate that a nontrivial share of the race gap in college completion is generated after matriculation, by the environments that students encounter in college. Consequently, policy interventions that target field of study environments can substantially mitigate racial disparities in college graduation rates.     

Preferences,constraints, and the process of sex segregation in college majors: A choice analysis

The persistence of horizontal sex segregation in higher education continues to puzzle social scientists. To help resolve this puzzle, we analyze a sample of college entrants in Germany with a discrete choice design that allows for social learning from the experiences of others. We make at least two contributions to the state of research. First, we test whether essentialist gender stereotypes affect major selection mostly through internalization or rather as external constraints that high school graduates adapt their behavior to. Empirically, we find that internalized vocational interests better explain gendered major choices than conformance with friends' and parents' expectations does. Second, we scrutinize whether segregation results from women's anticipation of gendered family roles or from their anticipation of sex-based discrimination, but we find no evidence for either of these hypotheses. As in most previous studies, differences in mathematics achievement fail to explain gendered patterns of selection into college majors.     

Heterogeneity in returns to college education: selection bias in contemporary taiwan

The causal impact of higher education on earnings may be heterogeneous across different members of a population. Using a newly developed instrumental-variable method in economics, we illustrate heterogeneous treatment effects of higher education on earnings resulting from sorting mechanisms that select individuals with certain unobserved attributes into college education. The setting of our empirical work is contemporary Taiwan - a transitional economy that has recently experienced a rapid expansion in higher education. We find distinct patterns by gender, with selection bias most clearly shown among women but not among men: the college return to earnings is on average greater for women who actually attended college than women who did not attend college.     

民办外语学院培育毕业生就业市场研究

当前,民办外语学院毕业生找不到合适工作和用人单位招不到急需外语人才的结构性矛盾日益凸显。民办外语学院要通过建设应用型外语人才培养工作体系,建构职业发展和就业指导教育工作系统,主动培育毕业生就业市场和建立就业市场运行机制等三项工作的研究和实践,努力培育特色鲜明的毕业生就业市场,积极探索和实践新形势下做好毕业生就业工作的新思路和新途径。     

高师院校不同学制毕业生就业竞争力比较研究

毕业生就业竞争力是衡量人才培养质量的一个重要指标,加强对不同学制毕业生就业竞争力研究,有利于提升办学质量。对不同学制毕业生的就业竞争力分析可从初次就业率、就业现状满意度、毕业半年后的月收入、工作与专业相关度、职业吻合度和半年内的离职率等方面进行比较。利用非参数检验法对某高师院校毕业生就业状况调查报告中的有关数据对比分析,发现五年制专科毕业生的就业竞争力与三年制专科毕业生无显著性差别。结果表明:五年制专科毕业生具有明确的专业定位、专业技能较强等优势,可适当扩大五年制专科招生规模。     

大学生涉足“互联网金融”现象的透析及对教育工作的启示

互联网金融的核心是金融理财和网络消费。互联网金融为大学生创业开创了新天地,为培养理财意识开辟了新课堂,同时也为那些风险意识弱、热衷追潮的大学生埋下了因过于关注投资而荒废学业、因经不起网购引诱而盲目消费、因轻松获取投资回报而助长投机心理的伏笔。在后现代消费主义思潮的冲击下,如何引导大学生正确认知互联网金融带来的机遇和蕴含的风险,从互联网金融中挖掘教育资源和教育方法,需要加以深入研究。     

以课外科技活动为牵引 培养学生创新能力

目前我国工程技术人员的创新精神和综合创新素质不足,工程科学方面的原创性创新成果少。工程师主要来源于高等工程院校毕业生,有必要加快高校大学生创新培养体系的构建,推进制造业创新。     

“互联网+”背景下高校创业咨询服务价值提升的研究

当前,在我国提倡“大众创业、万众创新”新形势下,越来越多的大学毕业生选择自主创业。然而,在互联网+时代背景下,如何让高校大学生创业咨询服务更好地顺应时代的发展,是高校就业创业指导工作中必须面对和解决的问题,文章通过对大学生创业服务价值提升的研究,为提高大学生创业能力提供参考意见。     

Composition and decomposition in US gender-specific self-reported health disparities, 1984–2007

Variance function regression models and demographic decomposition methods are applied to identify two dimensions of changes in health disparities (SES-demographic effects vs. compositional effects, between-group disparities vs. within-group disparities) in the US from 1984 to 2007. Using National Health Interview Survey data on self-reported health, we find that disparities in men’s health increased, while those of women decreased, for the whole period. Widening men’s health disparities are largely driven by increases in the effects of SES-demographic statuses on within-group disparities. These increases are moderated by increasing levels of men’s college attainment. But decreasing middle and upper income attainment and a decreasing employment rate further increase men’s health disparities. For women, the effects of SES-demographic statuses on health disparities also increased over time. This, however, was outweighed by increases in women’s college attainment, middle and upper income attainment, and employment rate. The result is overall declining self-reported health disparities for women.     

大学毕业生思想政治教育探究

大学毕业生思想政治教育工作,是大学教育的有机组成部分。现存在诸多问题:从学校而言,过度关注就业数量而轻视就业质量,关注短时任务完成轻视长效机制建设;就学生个人而言,心理问题突出,自我评价过高等。为此,提出加强学科教育和心理素质教育等对策。     

Partnered women's contribution to household labor income: Persistent inequalities among couples and their determinants

This paper explores earnings inequalities within dual-earner couples in East and West Germany drawing on household-level panel data from 1992 to 2016. It has three aims: (1) to analyze how the partner pay gap (the pay gap between partners within one household) has developed over time, given institutional change, and whether the extent of inequality and temporal development vary between East and West Germany; (2) to explore variation in the partner pay gap by male partners' absolute earnings; and (3) to investigate the micro-level determinants of earnings inequalities within couples and determine whether their relevance varies between East and West Germany as well as by male partners’ absolute earnings. We find women earn substantially less than their partners, and our regression results find no indication of a declining partner pay gap. Besides substantial variation between East and West Germany, our results also reveal important group-specific variation in the extent of the partner pay gap as well as in its determinants.     

Her money, her time: Women’s earnings and their housework hours

Do husbands and wives divide housework on the basis of who makes more money? Much of the recent literature has focused on the effects of individuals’ earnings relative to their partners’ on their housework. By contrast, this paper analyzes the effects of women’s own earnings on the time they spend doing housework in the context of heterosexual couple households. A conservative estimate using the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) is that the negative association of women’s housework with their own earnings is two to three times greater than that with their partners’; in the full model, the association with partners’ earnings is not statistically significant. The importance of women’s own earnings in housework models is highlighted by the comparable effect of income on housework among single women. It appears that so far as housework is concerned, women do not benefit greatly from their male partners’ incomes. The finding emphasizes the gender segregation of domestic labor, and underscores the importance of income differences among women in explaining their housework behavior. It shows that the difference between the mean housework hours of the women with the lowest and highest earnings is as large as the difference between the mean housework hours of women and men.     

美国社区服务的大学生择业准备模式研究

美国社区就业是得到国际普遍认可的大学生择业模式,其特点就是立法、政府(教育、劳动就业管理部门)与学校、社区的合作促进就业的制度设计。其中鼓励在校学生积极参与社区志愿服务的就业预备模式的实质,就是规避市场经济条件下的"毕业即失业"现象,使得教育和劳动就业部门、学校、社区和学生群体形成共同自由择业的合力。与美国不同,我国现行劳动预备制度排除了高校毕业生,特点是通过劳动技能培训、发证,促使初、高中毕业生走进劳动力市场。但自2004年高校扩招后,"毕业即失业"或毕业后滞后待业现象越来越呈现规模化。如何走出高校毕业生的择业困局,美国的社区就业模式值得借鉴。