How Do Online Degrees Affect Labor Market Prospects? Evidence from a Correspondence Audit Study

Conor Lennon

ILR Review, 2021, vol. 74, issue 4, 920-947

Abstract: This article reports the findings of a correspondence audit study that examines how online bachelor’s degrees affect labor market outcomes. The study involves sending 1,891 applications for real job openings using 100 fictitious applicant profiles. The applicant profiles are designed to be representative of recent college graduates from established universities. Using random assignment to degree type, applicant profiles that indicate a traditional (in-person) degree receive nearly twice as many callbacks as those that indicate an online degree. Findings suggest that, at least currently, completing an online degree program would significantly limit the labor market prospects of typical college students.

Keywords: online education; correspondence study; human capital; recruitment; job search; signaling; online degree; hiring; audit study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0019793919899943 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:74:y:2021:i:4:p:920-947

DOI: 10.1177/0019793919899943

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in ILR Review from Cornell University, ILR School
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().