Grads on the Go: Measuring College-Specific Labor Markets for Graduates

Johnathan G. Conzelmann, Steven W. Hemelt (), Brad Hershbein, Shawn Martin, Andrew Simon and Kevin Stange ()
Additional contact information
Johnathan G. Conzelmann: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Steven W. Hemelt: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Shawn Martin: University of Michigan
Kevin Stange: University of Michigan

No 15323, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper introduces a new measure of the labor markets served by colleges and universities across the United States. About 50 percent of recent college graduates are living and working in the metro area nearest the institution they attended, with this figure climbing to 67 percent in-state. The geographic dispersion of alumni is more than twice as great for highly selective 4-year institutions as for 2-year institutions. However, more than one-quarter of 2-year institutions disperse alumni more diversely than the average public 4-year institution. In one application of these data, we find that the average strength of the labor market to which a college sends its graduates predicts college-specific intergenerational economic mobility. In a second application, we quantify the extent of "brain drain" across areas and illustrate the importance of considering migration patterns of college graduates when estimating the social return on public investment in higher education.

Keywords: postsecondary education; labor markets; colleges; economic mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I25 J21 J40 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2022-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mig
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published online in: Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 12 December 2023

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https://docs.iza.org/dp15323.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Grads on the Go: Measuring College-Specific Labor Markets for Graduates (2023)
Working Paper: Grads on the Go: Measuring College-Specific Labor Markets for Graduates (2022)
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