The Expected (Signaling) Value of Higher Education

Laura Ehrmantraut (), Pia Pinger and Renske Stans
Additional contact information
Laura Ehrmantraut: Federal Statistical Office

No 13729, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper explores students' expectations about the returns to completing higher education and provides first evidence on perceived signaling and human capital effects. We elicit counterfactual labor market expectations for the hypothetical scenarios of leaving university with or without a degree certificate among a large and diverse sample of students at different stages of higher education. Our findings indicate substantial perceived returns to higher education. Moreover, by exploiting within-individual variation, we document sizeable expected labor market returns from signaling, whereas perceived productivity-enhancing (human capital) returns seem to be less pronounced. Over the expected course of career, we find lasting education premia as well as evidence consistent with employer learning.

Keywords: signaling; returns to education; higher education; educational attainment; licensing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I23 I26 J24 J31 J32 J44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63 pages
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-eur
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://docs.iza.org/dp13729.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Expected (Signaling) Value of Higher Education (2020)
Working Paper: The Expected (Signaling) Value of Higher Education (2020)
Working Paper: The Expected (Signaling) Value of Higher Education (2020)
Working Paper: The Expected (Signaling) Value of Higher Education (2020)
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