STEM Graduates, Human Capital Externalities, and Wages in the U.S

John Winters

No 7830, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Previous research suggests that the local stock of human capital creates positive externalities within local labor markets and plays an important role in regional economic development. However, there is still considerable uncertainty over what types of human capital are most important. Both national and local policymakers in the U.S. have called for efforts to increase the stock of college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, but data availability has thus far prevented researchers from directly connecting STEM education to human capital externalities. This paper uses the 2009-2011 American Community Survey to examine the external effects of college graduates in STEM and non-STEM fields on the wages of other workers in the same metropolitan area. I find that both types of college graduates create positive wage externalities, but STEM graduates create much larger externalities.

Keywords: wage growth; STEM; human capital externalities; agglomeration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2013-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2014, 48, 190-198

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Related works:
Journal Article: STEM graduates, human capital externalities, and wages in the U.S (2014)
Working Paper: STEM Graduates, Human Capital Externalities, and Wages in the U.S (2014)
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