Volume 31, Number 1 (Winter) 1996
Cao, Jian, Ernst W. Stromsdorfer, and Gregory Weeks. 1996. "The Human Capital Effect of General Education Development Certificates on Low Income Women." Journal of Human Resources 31(1):206-228.
This
study examines the impacts of the General Equivalency Diploma (GED) certificate
and other secondary and post-secondary credentials on labor market outcomes for
women. It uses data from the NLSY Mother and Children file and the Washington
State Family Income Study (FIS). Correcting for sample selection and endogeneity
bias of welfare recipiency, we find that one cannot distinguish between
secondary dropouts, GED recipients, and secondary graduates in hours of work.
Results on hourly wage rates are mixed. For the FIS sample, GED recipients, secondary graduates, and secondary dropouts earn the same wage. For the NLSY, GED recipients fare better than dropouts, but worse than secondary graduates. Job experience explains the wage gap between GED recipients and graduates, but its explanatory power is dominated by controlling for years of education or AFQT. Differences in years of education and AFQT scores are responsible for the observed wage differences among GED recipients, secondary graduates, and secondary dropouts.
Jian Cao is an analyst at ATT Bell Laboratories in Somerset, New Jersey. Ernst W. Stromsdorfer is a professor of economics at Washington State University, Pullman. Gregory Weeks is a professor of economics at the Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington. The authors thank N. Scott Cardell for several valuable suggestions of econometric design and Dmitry Hindanov for assistance in computation. They also thank an anonymous referee for very helpful comments. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 1992 American Public Policy and Management Association annual meetings, and the 68th Western Economic Association annual meetings in 1993. Financial support has come from the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center at Washington State University and the Washington State Institute for Public Policy at the Evergreen State College. The authors take responsibility for any errors and omissions.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X