The Distribution of Lifetime Earnings Returns to College

Martin Nybom

Journal of Labor Economics, 2017, vol. 35, issue 4, 903 - 952

Abstract: I use Swedish registry data to estimate lifetime earnings returns to college and how they vary with observed and unobserved characteristics. The richness of the data also allows me to examine heterogeneity with respect to cognitive and noncognitive ability and parental earnings. Local instrumental variable analysis is used to recover marginal and average treatment effects under selection on gains. The findings support the notion of self-selection, but mainly on observed characteristics. Returns vary little with parental earnings but substantially with respect to both cognitive and noncognitive ability, thus suggesting important complementarities between formal schooling and informal skills.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (60)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/692475 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/692475 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Distribution of Lifetime Earnings Returns to College (2014)
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:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/692475

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Labor Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().