In-school work experience and the returns to schooling

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Light, A
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Ohio State University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/209980
• 发表日期: 2001
• 页码: 65-93
• 关键词: employment; earnings

摘要

Students often accumulate substantial work experience before leaving school. Because conventional earnings functions do not control for in-school work experience, their estimates of the return to schooling include the benefit of work experience gained along the way. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I estimate wage models with and without controls for in-school work experience. The estimated schooling coefficients are 25%-44% higher (depending on how I control for ability bias) when in-school work experience is omitted than when it is included. These findings indicate that conventional models significantly overstate the wage effects of school only.