Search Results
Do College Degrees Mean More Wealth?
College degrees usually indicate higher income and wealth over those without. But the college wealth premium for those born more recently is getting smaller.
Report
Educational Attainment and Wage Growth in New England: Evidence from Four Decades of Administrative Wage Records
Per capita personal income in New England grew from $10,731 to $87,655 during the 1980–2024 period. This increase, the largest among all US census divisions, coincided with significant growth in educational attainment in the region. As of 2024, 53 percent of New England workers aged 25 to 64 held at least a bachelor’s degree, and 23 percent possessed advanced degrees, compared with national averages of 44 percent and 17 percent, respectively. This study provides new insights into the relationship between educational attainment and income growth in New England, examining both individual ...
Journal Article
Decline in Number of Workers with “Some College” Is Boosting Healthcare Wage Inflation
Compared with the pre-pandemic period, the labor force contains about 1.5 million fewer individuals who have some post-secondary schooling but less than a bachelor’s degree. As a result, vacancies for jobs that require a post-secondary certificate or an associate degree remain elevated, especially in health-related fields. These shortages have contributed to higher wages in the fast-growing healthcare field and are unlikely to resolve quickly.
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.
Sources of Intergenerational Persistence in College Attainment
Financial resources and cognitive and noncognitive abilities may help explain why children tend to achieve levels of education similar to their parents, this analysis suggests.
Journal Article
The Return on Investing in a College Education
Comparing higher education’s costs and benefits—tuition and greater future earnings, respectively—shows that the returns on investing in college can be high.
Residential Segregation and the Black-White College Gap
Using an economic model, researchers find that racial wage disparities, the amenity externality and racial barriers to moving could help explain the Black-white gap in college attainment.
Asian American Households Had More College Grads, Higher Incomes in 2022
Asian American households had more college grads and higher incomes than other racial and ethnic groups in 2022, per new data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
Working Paper
Explaining Stagnation in the College Wage Premium
After growing substantially during the 1980s through the early 2000s, the college wage premium more recently has been largely unchanged, or stagnant. We extend the canonical production-function model of skill premiums to assess supply and demand contributions to the slowdown in college wage premium, using annual CPS ASEC data from the early 1960s through 2023. To account for the rising importance of women in the college educated workforce, we estimate a hybrid model that incorporates components that are disaggregated by age and gender. We also allow for non-linearities and changes over time ...
Essay
Racial Equity Could Produce Widespread Economic Gains
An analysis suggests that racial and ethnic equity in employment, hours worked, education and earnings could expand U.S. GDP by trillions of dollars.