Is a Dream Deferred a Dream Denied? College Enrollment and Time-Varying Opportunity Costs

Francisco Perez-Arce

Journal of Labor Economics, 2015, vol. 33, issue 1, 33 - 61

Abstract: A public college randomly assigns applicants into a group that can enroll immediately and a group that can do so only after 1 year. One and a half years after the first group enrolled, individuals in that group were 19 percentage points more likely to be enrolled than those who had to wait. I present a model of educational decision making that predicts a substantial effect of deferral on attainment only when opportunity costs (wages) can vary across time within individuals. I estimate the model to project the long-term effect of deferred admission on attainment for different groups of applicants.

Date: 2015
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