Time to baccalaureate degree in the labor market: Evidence from a field experiment

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Bloem, Michael D.
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1520-6785
• DOI: 10.1002/pam.70010
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: discrimination; unemployment; EMPLOYMENT; lakisha

摘要

I study whether the amount of time students take to complete their bachelor's degree affects labor outcomes after graduation using a resume-based field experiment. I randomly assign a time to degree of either 4 or 6 years to over 7,000 fictitious resumes of recent graduates and submit them to entry-level business jobs. Resumes listing degree completion in 6 years received 1% to 2% fewer employer responses than resumes indicating graduation in 4 years, which is not a statistically significant difference. There is also no difference in the effect of longer time to degree between resumes listing a more or less selective college. However, among jobs with relatively large applicant pools, resumes listing 6 years to degree receive 16% fewer responses.