Failing to Finish: The role of employer effects on advanced education attainment

Alexander J. Chesney

Economics of Education Review, 2025, vol. 106, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates how promotion policies impact advanced education attainment on employees throughout a career. Using administrative data from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), I leverage a natural experiment where academic credentials were masked from promotion consideration. I exploit an event study and difference-in-differences design to find individuals are 14 percentage points (26 percent relative to the mean) less likely to complete a master’s degree when education credentials are no longer considered for promotion. I then explore possible mechanisms by describing how a graduate degree’s promotion premium fluctuates before and after the policy change. I show attendance at for-profit institutions declined substantially after the policy reform; however, I find the promotion premium of a master’s degree from a for-profit to be similar to other academic institutions.

Keywords: Human capital investment; Master’s degrees; For-profit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I22 I26 I28 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:106:y:2025:i:c:s0272775725000172

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2025.102637

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