Using a sample of college graduates from the NLSY97, we introduce a new approach to assessing wage benefits of STEM training, STEM jobs, and the match between the two: rather than classify individuals dichotomously as STEM or non-STEM, we measure the STEM-intensities of both their college coursework and their occupational requirements. While the…

Colleges offer remedial coursework to help students enrolling in post-secondary education who are not adequately prepared to succeed in college-level courses. Despite the prevalence of remediation, previous research presents contradictory findings regarding its short- and long-term effects. This paper uses a doubly robust inverse probability…

Economic theories predict that women are more likely to exit the labor force if their partners' earnings are higher and if their own wage rate is lower. In this article, I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,254) and discrete-time event-history analysis to show that wives' relative wages are more predictive of their exit than are…

This report revisits the debate about why social mobility levels are relatively low in Great Britain and the United States of America compared to other countries. It focuses on three main areas within this debate: (1) the changing role of educational inequalities; (2) the expectation of ever higher levels of education as revealed in increasing…

Previous estimates on the association between body weight and wages in the literature have been contingent on education and occupation. This paper examines the direct effect of BMI on wages and the indirect effects operating through education and occupation choice, particularly for late-teen BMI and adult wages. Using the National Longitudinal…

We use panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to estimate the effects of cognitive skills (measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test) and attitudinal/behavioral traits (a latent factor based on self-reported self-esteem, locus of control, educational aspirations and educational expectations) on career wage…

Purpose: The aim of this article is to define a new kind of labor mobility called technological mobility, defined here as the different levels of technological change experienced by workers as they change jobs over the course of their career. Technological mobility is viewed as a form of career mobility, and it is hypothesized that moving to jobs…

We show that the narrowing gender gap and the growth in earnings inequality are consistent with a simple model in which skills are heterogeneous, and the growth in skill prices has been particularly strong for skills with which women are well endowed. Empirical analysis of DOT, CPS, and NLSY79 data finds evidence to support this model. A large…

In this article, we consider how the economic return to a college education varies across members of the U.S. population. Based on principles of comparative advantage, scholars commonly presume that positive selection is at work, that is, individuals who are most likely to select into college also benefit most from college. Net of observed…

Some research has shown discrepancies in earnings trends between the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the Current Population Survey. When the sample is limited to full-time, year-round workers, the discrepancies are largely eliminated. (SK)

It has been noted that the payoffs of schooling on salary is more for women than for men, though females are inclined to earn less in the United states. The causes of this effect are investigated using information from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

In estimating earnings equations for seven occupations, when fringe benefits are excluded, women receive significantly lower wages in all but the most female-dominated occupation. Including fringe benefits makes gender significant in only one occupational category. Crowding of one gender into an occupation appears the primary determinant of the…

Recent reports using cross-sectional data indicate an increase in the percentage of wives who outearn their husbands, yet we know little about the persistence of wives' income advantage. The present analyses utilize the 1990-1994 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N = 3,481) to examine wives' long-term earnings advantage.…

Analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-88 shows the main source of difference in black-white wages to be racial differences in quality, not quantity, of schooling. Closing the racial gap in basic skills learned could reduce wage differences by two-thirds. (SK)

Analysis of data from 12,686 young adult workers demonstrated that men's wages benefited more from marriage, women's were constrained by dual marital/parental roles; detrimental effects of female-dominated occupations were more pronounced for single or childless married persons; married women experience social closure, sorting them into segregated…