Second Chance for High School Dropouts? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Postsecondary Educational Returns to the GED

Christopher Jepsen, Peter Mueser and Kenneth Troske

No 1704, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Missouri

Abstract: We evaluate the educational returns to General Educational Development (GED) certification using state administrative data. We use fuzzy regression discontinuity (FRD) methods to account for the fact that GED test takers can repeatedly retake the test until they pass it and the fact that test takers have to pass all five subtests before receiving the GED. We find that the GED increases the likelihood of postsecondary attendance and course completion substantially, but the GED impact on overall credits completed is modest: The GED causes an average increment of only two credits for men and six credits for women.

Keywords: GED; High School Dropouts; Educational Returns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2017-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cFopP8f6xZPW7ZzV2 ... Hm7/view?usp=sharing (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Second Chance for High School Dropouts? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Postsecondary Educational Returns to the GED (2017)
Working Paper: Second Chance for High-school Dropouts? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Postsecondary Educational Returns to the GED (2017)
Working Paper: Second Chance for High School Dropouts? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Postsecondary Educational Returns to the GED (2017)
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:umc:wpaper:1704

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Missouri Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chao Gu ().