Poster #74 - Labor Market Returns to College Enrollment and Degree Attainment: Heterogeneous Effects by Socioeconomic Status

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

The experiences during the transition to adulthood have lasting consequences (Arnett, 2000). For example, earning a college degree has long-term implications for youths’ future employment and financial status (Hout, 2011). However, youth with low economic resources may have limited support to enter and persist through college (Kim & Sherraden, 2011). Because of the high cost of college education, understanding its potential labor market returns for low-income youth is critical.
While studies have investigated whether the returns to college differ by family socioeconomic status (SES), there is no clear consensus as to which youth benefit more (Brand & Xie, 2010). Furthermore, most research focuses on the effect of either college enrollment or degree attainment, when they can have comparative effects to career outcomes. This study expands on the extant literature by examining how the college enrollment, compared to none enrollment and also degree attainment, predicts career outcomes, and whether this varies by family SES. Additionally, we examine both objective and subjective indicators of success to enhance our understanding of the meaning of college experiences to later outcomes.
We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1997, a nationally representative sample of youth born between 1980-1985. They were first interviewed in 1997 and were followed across 17 rounds until 2015. College status consists of three categories: a) degree attainment b) no degree but enrolled at least once c) no enrollment. This was coded based on youths’ report of the highest degree of education and history of college enrollment across all survey rounds. The college degree included an Associate’s, Bachelor's degree, and higher. We used two indicators of career outcomes both collected through the latest wave: a) past year’s income and b) job satisfaction. Income was confined to those from wages and salary, and job satisfaction was the extent they liked their main job on a 5-point scale. Covariates included the birth year, gender, race, intact family, rural residence, household income and net-worth, mother’s and father’s education, the expected % of peers who plan to go to college, and high school GPA.
To examine the influence of college status on future career outcomes, we conducted regression analyses (Table 1) and propensity score models (Table 2) that focused on the treatment-on-the-treated effect. Results across the models were similar. The results showed that those who attained the college degree were more likely to have a higher wage compared to those who did not receive a college degree, regardless of if they have ever enrolled in college. However, the level of job satisfaction did not differ by college status. In future analyses, we will test if there is a heterogeneous effect of college enrollment and degree attainment by different propensity score groups.
Our preliminary findings suggest that it is the college degree that matters the most on future earnings, regardless of the college enrollment. However, career satisfaction may not derive merely from the degree. Through future analysis, we expect to see how the returns of college enrollment and degree attainment on career outcomes may vary by SES.

Authors

• Sugene Cho, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Kelly M Purtell, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author