Institution, Major, and Firm-Specific Premia: Evidence from Administrative Data

Ben Ost, Weixiang Pan and Douglas Webber

No 19-24, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Abstract: We examine how a student?s major and the institution attended contribute to the labor market outcomes of young graduates. Administrative panel data that combine student transcripts with matched employer-employee records allow us to provide the first decomposition of premia into individual and firm-specific components. We find that both major and institutional premia are more strongly related to the firm-specific component of wages than the individual-specific component of wages. On average, a student?s major is a more important predictor of future wages than the selectivity of the institution attended, but major premia (and their relative ranking) can differ substantially across institutions, suggesting the importance of program-level data for prospective students and their parents.

Keywords: college quality; returns to major; firm-specific premium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I24 I26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2019-05-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Institution, Major, and Firm-Specific Premia: Evidence from Administrative Data (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedpwp:19-24

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DOI: 10.21799/frbp.wp.2019.24

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