ERIC Number: EJ1474847
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jun
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0276-8739
EISSN: EISSN-1520-6688
Available Date: 2023-12-12
Grads on the Go: Measuring College-Specific Labor Markets for Graduates
Johnathan G. Conzelmann1; Steven W. Hemelt1; Brad J. Hershbein2; Shawn Martin3; Andrew Simon4; Kevin M. Stange5
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, v44 n3 p741-763 2025
This paper introduces a new measure of the labor markets served by colleges and universities across the United States. About 50% of recent college graduates are living and working in the metro area nearest the institution they attended, with this figure climbing to 67% in-state. The geographic dispersion of alumni is more than twice as great for highly selective 4-year institutions as for 2-year institutions. However, more than one quarter of 2-year institutions disperse alumni more diversely than the average public 4-year institution. In one application of these data, we find that the average strength of the labor market to which a college sends its graduates predicts college-specific intergenerational economic mobility. In a second application, we quantify the extent of "brain drain" across areas and illustrate the importance of considering migration patterns of college graduates when estimating the social return on public investment in higher education.
Descriptors: Labor Market, College Graduates, Alumni, Mobility, Brain Drain, Outcomes of Education, Geographic Location, Postsecondary Education, Economic Factors
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Related Records: ED662991
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE); Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1919387; R305B150012
Department of Education Funded: Yes
Author Affiliations: 1University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; 2W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA; 3Cornerstone Research, New York, New York, USA; 4University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA; 5University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA