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Title: The Returns to Community College
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2013
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Abstract: Almost half of postsecondary students are currently enrolled in community colleges. Theseinstitutions imply that even amongst students with the same degree outcome there is consid-erable heterogeneity in the path taken to get there. I estimate the life-cycle private and socialreturns to the di erent postsecondary paths and sequential decisions made by the students usingdata from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). My approach highlightsboth the bene ts and the costs of di erent postsecondary choices, as well as taking accountof the fact that wage premia are not constant over the life-cycle. I nd positive, signi cantsocial and private returns for most postsecondary paths and decisions. Signi cantly lower op-portunity and direct costs for paths that involve community college make the internal returnsto these paths high. Even for paths that lead to the same nal degree, returns and presentvalues are di erent due to di erent costs and earnings over the life-cycle. I also analyze thedi erent programs and majors o ered by community colleges separately. For this, I supplementthe analysis in the NLSY79 with additional data from the Beginning Postsecondary StudentsSurvey (BPS), the Census, and the Current Population Survey (CPS). I estimate high returns toscience, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, business, and health majorsat community college as compared to other majors. I nd that both occupational and academicassociate's degrees give signi cant returns to men and women.
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Authors: Agan, Amanda Y.
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Publisher Location: Chicago, Il
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Education, Labor Force and Occupational Structure
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