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Title: Soviet Launch of Sputnik: Sputnik-Inspired Educational Reform and Changes in Private Returns in America

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: On October 4th 1957, the Soviet Union launched the worlds first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, into an elliptical low Earth orbit. This surprise triggered an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as science-oriented educational reform in the U.S. Sputnik sparked changes for the U.S. in military, politics, policies, and education. The launch of Sputnik woke Americans up from complacency came from technology, science, and educational superiority. Educational reform started with emphasizing science and defense education and it was expanded to all levels of education. Early reforms, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 were focused on science and defense education during Eisenhowers administration. Domestic programs such as Civil Rights and Great Society diffused educational policy to produce more general human capitals for improve poverty and economic growth during the administrations of Kennedy and Johnson. The Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965 was enacted to support postsecondary education. I assert that these policy outputs have contributed to the dramatic increase in the supply of college graduates since 1960. This study begins with emphasizing the Soviet launching of Sputnik and educational reform in early 1960s in U.S. as a cause and effect relationship. Analysis focuses on the policy process of educational reform by applying Kingdons multiple streams model, and on the economic effects of increase in the supply of college graduates by applying Acemoglus theory, the pooling and separating equilibria (1999). According to Acemoglu, economy transitions from initial pooling equilibrium to separating equilibrium as supply of high skilled labor increases and thus labor markets show different patterns in unemployment rates and wage structures for skilled and unskilled, as well as job mismatch. I find that occupational segregation at the state labor markets increases corresponding to supply of college graduates, and overeducation decreases as occupational segregation increases. Moreover, occupational segregation has positive wage effects and wage penalty from overeducation becomes smaller in states where occupations are more separated between the skilled and the unskilled. College graduates earn more wage premiums in states where occupations are more separated between the skilled and the unskilled.

Url: http://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2551&context=all_dissertations

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Authors: Cha, Hyeonggu

Institution: Clemson University

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Publisher Location: Clemson, South Carolina

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Other

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