Volume 27, Number 4 (Fall) 1992
Falaris, Evangelos M. and H. Elizabeth Peters. 1992. "Schooling Choices and Demographic Cycles." Journal of Human Resources 27(4):551-574.
This paper examines the effect of demographic cycles on schooling choices and the timing of school completion. Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience and from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that men and women born during the upswing of a demographic cycle obtain more schooling and take longer to finish a year of schooling than comparable individuals born during the downswing of a demographic cycle. The patterns that we document are more complex than would be predicted by any of the theoretical models of educational responses to demographic cycles that have been presented in the literature.
Evangelos M. Falaris is an associate professor of economics at the University of Delaware. H. Elizabeth Peters is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado and a research associate in the population program. The authors would like to thank Kenneth Wolpin, Mark Berger, the referees and seminar participants at the Center for Human Resource Research at Ohio State University for their comments. This paper was prepared under a contract with the Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, under the authority of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. Peters would also like to acknowledge the financial support of the Council on Research and Creative Work at the University of Colorado. The authors are solely responsible for any interpretations contained in this paper. It does not necessarily represent the official position of the Department of Labor. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in March 1993 through March 1996 from Evangelos Falaris, Department of Economics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716.
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