In this paper, we analyze recently collected data that conducts a unique assessment of high school student performance for over two thousand students from five Chinese provinces. Across three domains of scientific intelligence tested, we document heterogeneous gender gaps in academic performance. These differences generally arise due to…

Using National Research Council data, we investigate the determinants of graduation rates in US Ph.D. programmes. We emphasise the impact that support and facilities offered to doctoral students have on completion rates. Significant, strong and positive effects are found for the provision of on-site graduate conferences and dedicated workspace,…

It is commonly believed that education is a good thing for individuals. Yet, its correlation with subjective well-being is most often only weakly positive, or even negative, despite the many associated better individual-level outcomes. We here square the circle using novel Japanese data on happiness aspirations. If reported happiness comes from a…

This paper directly tests for differences in returns to education between the employed and self-employed in Hong Kong. Using a step-function, we find significantly smaller returns for the self-employed, suggesting that in the highly competitive labor market of Hong Kong education plays a signaling role. This pattern persists for both genders, when…

This paper studies the determinants of age-specific employment rates among Swedish males, focusing on the effect of education on employment. We use cohort specific data for the time period 1984-1996 covering male cohorts aged 21-45. It is found that aggregate age-group-specific employment rates increase with the proportion of the cohort with an…

Investigates education and earnings for 3,709 residents of rural China. Education was significantly related to earnings; an additional year of schooling raised residents' earnings by 4.8 yuan monthly. The earnings effect was stronger for males and in economically advanced areas. Average private rate of return to education was 4.8%. Contains 26…