The Effects of Advanced Degrees on the Wage Rates, Hours, Earnings, and Job Satisfaction of Women and Men*

Joseph G. Altonji, John Humphries and Ling Zhong

A chapter in 50th Celebratory Volume, 2023, vol. 50, pp 25-81 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: This chapter uses a college-by-graduate degree fixed effects estimator to evaluate the returns to 19 different graduate degrees for men and women. We find substantial variation across degrees, and evidence that OLS overestimates the returns to degrees with the highest average earnings and underestimates the returns to degrees with the lowest average earnings. Second, we decompose the impacts on earnings into effects on wage rates and effects on hours. For most degrees, the earnings gains come from increased wage rates, though hours play an important role in some degrees, such as medicine, especially for women. Third, we estimate the net present value and internal rate of return for each degree, which account for the time and monetary costs of degrees. Finally, we provide descriptive evidence that satisfaction gains are large for some degrees with smaller economic returns, such as education and humanities degrees, especially for men.

Keywords: I23; I24; I26; J16; Graduate education; returns to education; gender gap; work hours; wage rates; field of graduate study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: The Effects of Advanced Degrees on the Wage Rates, Hours, Earnings and Job Satisfaction of Women and Men (2022)
Working Paper: The Effects of Advanced Degrees on the Wage Rates, Hours, Earnings and Job Satisfaction of Women and Men (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rleczz:s0147-912120230000050002

DOI: 10.1108/S0147-912120230000050002

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