This study analyzes college graduates in the workplace to evaluate the effects of horizontal mismatches between education and jobs on wages and mobility. Using the Heckman-Lee and probit models, this study shows that a gender wage gap still exists. However, the size of the gender wage differential depends on the extent of mismatch. Specifically,…

The United States and Pennsylvania economies are at a pivot point: Will we build forward better or will we build back the same? Will we make things even worse? This report revisits the policy choices that lie ahead. Most of this annual checkup on the Pennsylvania economy, the 26th "State of Working Pennsylvania," presents labor market…

We test for the signaling hypothesis versus the human capital theory using the Wiles test in a country which has experienced a dramatic increase in the supply of skills in a relatively short period of time. For this purpose, we construct a job match index based on the usefulness of school-provided skills and the relevance of the job performed to…

This paper analyses the prevalence of educational mismatch and its effects on wages in Brazil using a large employer-employee dataset. I find that half of the Brazilian labour market is mismatched, with similar proportions of over- and undereducated. Overeducated (undereducated) workers earn significantly lower (higher) than their co-workers who…

Majoring in business typically pays off. While graduates' earnings and federal student loan debt vary by institution and degree level, the majority of business programs lead to median earnings that are roughly 10 times graduates' debt payments two years after program completion. "The Most Popular Degree Pays Off: Ranking the Economic Value of…

Indiana has been a leader in pursuing short-term credentialing initiatives to expand the education and training opportunities available to individuals through high schools, colleges, and other workforce training providers. To provide evidence on the short-term credentialing landscape in Indiana and potentially inform future decisions around policy…

This report estimates the monetary impact of one day of school absence within state-funded English secondary schools. First, the authors model the association between absence in Years 7-11 and Key Stage 4 attainment. Then, they apply these results to previous departmental research on the lifetime earnings returns to education. Combining these…

Since 2022, the District of Columbia (DC) has implemented the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (hereafter, "the fund"), which represents an innovative strategy for boosting the pay of early childhood educators to achieve pay parity between early childhood educators and their counterparts (Greenberg et al. 2023) and for supporting…

Much of the existing research on gender wage gaps in China is focused on a singular perspective, such as education, sector, industry, and urban-rural difference. This paper, however, discusses both returns to education and gender wage gaps from a sector perspective. Using Urban Household Survey of 2004 and 2013, this paper presents that the…

Policymakers across the country are seeking to better understand credentials of value--the education and training programs that help workers fill in-demand and growing jobs in their states. But right now, leaders are lacking the complete set of information they need to understand P-20W (early childhood, K-12, postsecondary, and workforce) pathways…

We estimate the effect of granting access to driver licenses to undocumented immigrants on their offspring's access to early childhood education (ECE). Using individual-level data from the ACS, we find that granting driving privileges to undocumented immigrants leads to a 6% increase in ECE attendance among Hispanic children with likely…

Low and stagnant teacher pay has been a perennial issue in the United States public school system since the early decades of the nineteenth century. Women teachers, then as now, confronted the issue head-on by organizing together. For example, women primary school teachers in Boston, Massachusetts successfully petitioned for more pay in 1835, but…

Pay inequity controversies cut across all disciplines and fields in higher education (Meara et al., 2020; Toutkoushian & Conley, 2005). Despite efforts to reduce the wage gap, gender wage inequities persist and continue to adversely affect women across various sectors (Katzeff, 2019; Schieder & Gould, 2016). Since passing the Equal Pay Act…

Climbing the ladder of institutional prestige is often promoted by leaders and policymakers in higher education, but there may be trade-offs associated with striving for status. This study examines the impact of Texas's National Research University Fund (NRUF), which uses financial incentives to support institutions' pursuit of prestige, on the…

Much research has been made in recent years on the effect of over and under education on earnings. In this paper, I examine the validity of the assumption that the return to over (under) education is independent of the level of education. I use data from the PIAAC survey to estimate the return to education. The findings show that while this…