Re: returns to higher education
According to an estimate by an organization that supports greater higher education funding, the bachelor's degree is worth approximately $580,000 over a high school diploma. http://www.aft.org/higher_ed/funding/ Edward J. López Assistant Professor Department of Economics University of North Texas P.O. Box 311457 Denton, TX 76203-1457 Tel: 940.369.7005 Fax: 940.565.4426 NEW EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.econ.unt.edu/elopez [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/24/01 08:12AM There are a number of previous studies which suggest that returns are higher to attending schools where students have higher SAT scores, but none of these do a very good job of controlling for the unobserved characteristics of the persons attending the schools. Krueger does this in a recent study by controlling for the quality of the schools you were accepted to (not everyone goes to the best school that accepts them) and finds that average SAT scores don't matter but tuition does. I am not convinced that the identification is bullet proof nor that the result might not be sensitive to specification. Particularly since average SAT score at schools is always badly mismeasured (either because the schools misreport them or because of the limited samples used to estimate them). -- Bill Dickens William T. Dickens The Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 Phone: (202) 797-6113 FAX: (202) 797-6181 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AOL IM: wtdickens
Re: returns to higher education
There are a number of previous studies which suggest that returns are higher to attending schools where students have higher SAT scores, but none of these do a very good job of controlling for the unobserved characteristics of the persons attending the schools. Krueger does this in a recent study by controlling for the quality of the schools you were accepted to (not everyone goes to the best school that accepts them) and finds that average SAT scores don't matter but tuition does. I am not convinced that the identification is bullet proof nor that the result might not be sensitive to specification. Particularly since average SAT score at schools is always badly mismeasured (either because the schools misreport them or because of the limited samples used to estimate them). -- Bill Dickens William T. Dickens The Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 Phone: (202) 797-6113 FAX: (202) 797-6181 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AOL IM: wtdickens
Re: returns to higher education
Hirschleifer's intermediate book reports that reputation of the school matters significantly. This is an older study, but he suggests that it is not your SAT score that matters, but the SAT score of your entering freshman class. This supports the signaling theory of education, as opposed to either training or sorting. Also, I just saw a recent study on the news here in DC that reported that what mattered most was major. The return to education for engineering is still high, but the return for the humanities are low. Dr. Peter J. Boettke, Deputy Director James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy Department of Economics George Mason University, MSN 3G4 Fairfax, VA 22030 (703) 993-1149 fax (703) 993-1133 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] homepage: http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/pboettke
Re: returns to higher education
On Thursday, August 23, 2001 6:25 PM Peter Boettke [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hirschleifer's intermediate book reports that reputation of the school matters significantly. This is an older study, but he suggests that it is not your SAT score that matters, but the SAT score of your entering freshman class. This supports the signaling theory of education, as opposed to either training or sorting. Also, I just saw a recent study on the news here in DC that reported that what mattered most was major. The return to education for engineering is still high, but the return for the humanities are low. Speaking from a position of near total ignorance, I would also think you might make connections at the better schools... Do the studies account for that? And, of course, if the incoming class scores high on SATs, this doesn't give us a way of judging how much value the school itself puts into the education beyond being around other high SAT scoring people. (This is not a bad thing, but I can imagine two schools using exactly the same teaching methods, curricula, books, etc. and getting differing outputs simply because one school had smarter students than the other.) Cheers! Daniel Ust http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/ Censorship and Art is now online at: http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/Censor.html One should judge a man mainly from his depravities. Virtues can be faked. Depravities are real. -- Klaus Kinski
