Community College Bachelor’s Degrees: How CCB Graduates’ Earnings Compare to AAs and BAs

Riley Acton (), Camila Morales (), Kalena Cortes (), Julia Turner () and Lois Miller ()
Additional contact information
Riley Acton: Miami University
Camila Morales: University of Texas at Dallas
Kalena Cortes: Texas A&M University
Julia Turner: Northwestern University
Lois Miller: University of South Carolina

No 18400, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: We provide the first descriptive analysis of the economic value of Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degrees by examining graduates’ early-career earnings, the costs of completing these programs, and the alignment between field of study and subsequent employment. Using administrative data and controlling for institution and field, we find that CCB graduates earn $4,000 to $9,000 more annually than Associate’s (AA) degree holders one year after graduation but experience average earnings penalties of roughly $2,000 relative to traditional Bachelor’s (BA) recipients. These averages mask substantial heterogeneity: penalties are largest in Computer and Information Technology and Engineering Technology, whereas CCB graduates in Nursing, other Healthcare fields, Business, and Criminal Justice exhibit minimal or no penalties. To contextualize these returns, we analyze tuition and fee structures across CCB-granting institutions and identify two dominant pricing models—constant and escalating. Total CCB program costs fall between those of AA and BA degrees, with escalating structures increasing upper-division prices by about 40 percent.

Keywords: community college baccalaureate; college accessibility; college choices; college attainment; associate’s degree; bachelor’s degree; community colleges; two-year colleges; four-year colleges; public postsecondary institutions; college tuition and fee structures; field of study; field-to-industry match (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I23 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18400.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:iza:izadps:dp18400

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().