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Working Paper
The Income-Achievement Gap and Adult Outcome Inequality
Nielsen, Eric R. (2015-05-14)
This paper discusses various methods for assessing group differences in academic achievement using only the ordinal content of achievement test scores. Researchers and policymakers frequently draw conclusions about achievement differences between various populations using methods that rely on the cardinal comparability of test scores. This paper shows that such methods can lead to erroneous conclusions in an important application: measuring changes over time in the achievement gap between youth from high- and low-income households. Commonly-employed, cardinal methods suggest that this ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2015-41

Discussion Paper
College May Not Pay Off for Everyone
Abel, Jaison R.; Deitz, Richard (2014-09-04)
In our recent Current Issues article and blog post on the value of a college degree, we showed that the economic benefits of a bachelor’s degree still far outweigh the costs. However, this does not mean that college is a good investment for everyone. Our work, like the work of many others who come to a similar conclusion, is based in large part on the empirical observation that the average wages of college graduates are significantly higher than the average wages of those with only a high school diploma. However, not all college students come from Lake Wobegon, where “all of the children ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20140904b

Why Human Capital Matters Why Human Capital Matters
Monge-Naranjo, Alexander (2020-10-13)
An economist at the St. Louis Fed discusses the growing importance of human capital in determining a nation’s income.
On the Economy

Report
The Limited Role of Intergenerational Transfers for Understanding Racial Wealth Disparities
Sabelhaus, John Edward; Thompson, Jeffrey P. (2023-03-07)
Transfers of wealth between generations—whether through inheritances or inter vivos gifts—are less important in explaining racial disparities in wealth than might be expected. While this factor looms large in the media’s discussions of racial inequality, it explains relatively little of the disparities evident in the data. One reason is that most people, regardless of race, receive no inheritance or other transfer of substantial value. In addition, most recipients of inheritances ultimately consume those bequests and do not plan to leave substantial gifts to their offspring. Further, ...
Current Policy Perspectives

Discussion Paper
When College Might Not Be Worth It
Abel, Jaison R.; Deitz, Richard (2025-04-16)
In our last post, we showed that the economic benefits of a college degree still far outweigh the costs for the typical graduate, with a healthy and consistent return of 12 to 13 percent over the past few decades. But there are many circumstances under which college graduates do not earn such a high return. Some colleges are much more expensive than average, and financial aid is not guaranteed no matter which college a student attends. In addition, the potentially high cost of living on campus was not factored into our estimates. Some students also may take five or six years to finish their ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20250416b

Journal Article
Research Spotlight: Skill Mismatch, Layoffs, and Bouncing Back
Hansbrough, Brooke (2024-08-13)
Being laid off from one's job often leads to worse future employment outcomes. The underlying reasons for this are unclear, however. Recent research by Richmond Fed Economist Claudia Macaluso has found that mismatch between a laid-off worker's skills and the skills involved in other local jobs plays a significant role. She created a novel measurement of "local skill remoteness" and used it to compare the effects of layoffs from jobs with varying levels of this skill remoteness on a worker's wages, future employment, and migration.
Econ Focus , Volume 24 , Issue 3Q , Pages 27

Working Paper
Why Do Earnings Fall with Job Displacement?
Fallick, Bruce; Carrington, William J. (2014-06-02)
The earnings of workers are reduced for many years after being displaced from their jobs, and those workers and their families face increased risk of other problems as well. The ills suffered by displaced workers motivated several recent expansions of government programs, including the unemployment insurance system, and have spurred calls for wage insurance that would provide longerrun earnings replacement. However, while the magnitude of the losses is relatively clear, the theory of why displacement matters is scattered and somewhat undeveloped. Much of the policy discussion appears to ...
Working Papers (Old Series) , Paper 1405

Report
Do colleges and universities increase their region's human capital?
Abel, Jaison R.; Deitz, Richard (2009-10-01)
We investigate whether the degree production and research and development (R&D) activities of colleges and universities are related to the amount and types of human capital present in the metropolitan areas where the institutions are located. We find that degree production has only a small positive relationship with local stocks of human capital, suggesting that migration plays an important role in the geographic distribution of human capital. Moreover, we show that spillovers from academic R&D activities tilt the structure of local labor markets toward occupations requiring innovation and ...
Staff Reports , Paper 401

Discussion Paper
Restructuring the Eligibility Policies of the Child Care and Development Fund to Address Benefit Cliffs and Affordability: Florida as a Case Study
Birken, Brittany; Ilin, Elias; Ruder, Alexander; Terry, Ellyn (2021-06-08)
This paper explores how the current eligibility policies of the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) create benefits cliffs that act as barriers to economic self-sufficiency. By examining Florida data and policies, the authors demonstrate how the program’s existing co-payment schedule affects the same hypothetical family living in two contrasting Florida counties: one with state median living costs and one with high living costs. The authors find that the CCDF income eligibility exit threshold is too low, particularly in high-cost counties. That occurs because the exit threshold ...
FRB Atlanta Community and Economic Development Discussion Paper , Paper 2021-01

Report
Preference for the workplace, investment in human capital, and gender
Zafar, Basit; Wiswall, Matthew (2016-03-01)
We use a hypothetical choice methodology to estimate preferences for workplace attributes and quantify how much these preferences influence pre-labor-market human capital investments. This method robustly identifies preferences for various job attributes, free from omitted variable bias and free from considering the equilibrium job match. Women on average have a higher willingness to pay (WTP) for jobs with greater work flexibility and job stability, and men have a higher WTP for jobs with higher earnings growth. These job preferences relate to college major choices and actual job choices, ...
Staff Reports , Paper 767

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