Explaining the Evolution of Educational Attainment in the U.S

Rui Castro and Daniele Coen-Pirani

Cahiers de recherche from Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ

Abstract: We study the evolution of educational attainment of the 1932–1972 cohorts using a calibrated model of investment in human capital with heterogeneous learning ability. The inter-cohort variation in schooling is driven by changes in skill prices, tuition, and education quality over time, and average learning ability across cohorts. A version of the model with static expectations is successful in accounting for the main patterns in the data. Rising skill prices for college explain the rapid increase in college graduation till the 1948 cohort. The measured decline in average learning ability contributes to explain the stagnation in college graduation between the 1948 and 1972 cohorts.

Keywords: educational attainment; human capital; skill prices; inequality; cohorts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 J24 J31 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-hrm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Explaining the Evolution of Educational Attainment in the U.S (2015)
Working Paper: Explaining the evolution of educational attainment in the U.S (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mtl:montec:11-2014

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