Parnes, Herbert S., and Andrew I. Kohen. 1975. "Occupational Information and Labor Market Status: The Case of Young Men." Journal of Human Resources 10(1):44-55.

A simple occupational information test administered to a national sample of young men 14 to 24 years of age produces scores that are positively related to amount of education, measured intelligence, and socioeconomic status of family of origin. Also, residents of large cities score higher than do farm youth. On the basis of information on average hourly earnings and occupational assignment two years after the administration of the occupational information test, it appears that youth with superior information were successful in obtaining better and higher paying jobs. Implications are drawn for human capital theory and educational policy.

The authors are, respectively, Professor in the Department of Economics and Research Associate in the Center for Human Resources Research, The Ohio State University. The research reported in this article is part of the National Longitudinal Surveys of labor market behavior being conducted by the Ohio State University Center for Human Resource Research under contract with the Manpower Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Since researchers undertaking such projects are encouraged to express their own judgments, interpretations or viewpoints are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policy of the Department of Labor. We wish to express our appreciation to Dennis Bayley and Susan Breinich for their valuable research assistance, to Gary Schoch for serving skillfully as our intermediary with the computer, and to our colleague, Paul Andrisani, for his helpful comments on a previous draft of the paper.

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US ISSN 0022-166X

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