Explaining the Evolution of Educational Attainment in the United States

Rui Castro and Daniele Coen-Pirani

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2016, vol. 8, issue 3, 77-112

Abstract: We study the evolution of educational attainment of the 1932-1972 cohorts using a human capital investment model with heterogeneous learning ability. Inter-cohort variation in schooling is driven by changes in skill prices, tuition, and education quality over time, and average learning ability across cohorts. Under static expectations the model accounts for the main empirical patterns. Rising skill prices for college explain the rapid increase in college graduation until the 1948 cohort. The decline in average learning ability, calibrated to match the evolution of test scores, explains half of the stagnation in college graduation between the 1948 and 1972 cohorts.

JEL-codes: I23 I24 I26 J24 J31 N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
Note: DOI: 10.1257/mac.20130139
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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