Search Results
How Important Is Instructional Spending to College Students’ Future Earnings?
Do colleges that invest more in instructional spending—on faculty, libraries, science labs—offer an education that translates into higher earnings for students?
Are Higher Child Care Wages Affecting the Labor Supply?
An analysis suggests that a rebound in labor force participation among women with a partner and child could have been stronger during the pandemic if not dampened by child care costs.
Seeking and Giving Advice
When she entered college, Senior Economist Oksana Leukhina aspired to become an international diplomat. Her plans changed after she received a piece of timely advice.
What Are the Trade-offs of Meritocratic College Admissions?
St. Louis Fed research suggests that removing certain constraints in college admission standards and higher-education funding could boost entry and graduation rates and earnings.
Journal Article
The Changing Role of Family Income in College Selection and Beyond
Previous literature has established that the role of family income has grown substantially at predicting college entry decisions when comparing the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (e.g., Belley and Lochner (2007)). In this article, I further examine the changing role of family income as a determinant of college quality choice, degree attainment, and post-schooling earnings. I document that the role of family income has remained important and relatively stable at explaining college quality choice, its importance increasing only for the choice of four- over two-year ...
Why Do Women Outnumber Men in College Enrollment?
Women appear to have a relatively higher financial return to college education than men, who have access to lucrative careers that require only a high school diploma.
How Lending Standards Change across the Business Cycle
Standards and terms for business loans ease during economic expansions and tighten during recessions. An analysis looks at why, and how these fluctuations are linked to productivity.
How Nonmonetary Job Amenities Improve with Higher Education
Nonmonetary job amenities tend to improve in occupations that require higher levels of education, providing an additional reason for college enrollment.
The Pandemic’s Influence on U.S. Fertility Rates
The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have had a negative impact on fertility for U.S. women ages 30-34, though birth rates did increase among women ages 20-24.
Industry-Level Growth, AI Use and the U.S. Postpandemic Recovery
Industries with higher percentages of college-educated workers and those with more prevalent AI use tended to see higher productivity growth in recent years.