The Expansion of College Education in the United States: Is There Evidence of Declining Cohort Quality?

Chinhui Juhn, Dae Il Kim and Francis Vella

Economic Inquiry, 2005, vol. 43, issue 2, 303-315

Abstract: This article documents the expansion of college education in the United States and examines to what extent the increase in the number of college graduates may have lead to a decline in the average quality of college graduates. Using the 1940--90 Census, we compare across birth year cohorts with varying levels of college completion. We find some weak evidence that college graduate men from highly educated cohorts earn a relatively smaller wage premium even controlling for the relative supply effect. However, these cohort quality effects account for only a small fraction of the recent fluctuation in the college wage premium.(JEL I20, J24, J31) Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

JEL-codes: I20 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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