Returns to Education through Access to Higher-Paying Firms: Evidence from US Matched Employer-Employee Data
Abstract
What are the sources of the returns to education? We study the allocation of higher education graduates from public institutions in Ohio across firms. We present three results. First, we confirm findings in the earlier literature of large pay differences across degrees. Second, we show that up to one quarter of pay premiums for higher degrees are explained by between-firm pay differences. Third, higher education degrees are associated with greater representation at the best-paying firms. We conclude that employer heterogeneity is an important factor in mediating the returns to education.
View research
Download PDF
Citation
Engbom, Niklas, and Christian Moser. "Returns to Education through Access to Higher-Paying Firms: Evidence from US Matched Employer-Employee Data." American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 107, no. 5 (May 2017): 374-378.
Each author name for a Columbia Business School faculty member is linked to a faculty research page, which lists additional publications by that faculty member.
Each topic is linked to an index of publications on that topic.