Kane and Rouse (1993) furnish evidence that enrollment in a two-year-or four-year-college program increases earnings by 5 to 8 percent per year of college credits, whether or not a degree is earned. This evidence has provided the intellectual basis for policy recommendations to in­crease access by adult workers to long-term education and training pro­grams, such as those supplied by community colleges. Yet to be an­swered, however, is the question whether these favorable return estimates hold for experienced adult workers who return to school. For both A.A. and nondegree community college programs, our results indi­cate returns that are positive and of essentially the same size for re­turning adults as they are for continuing high school graduates. Among males in nondegree programs, in fact, returning adults enjoy an incre­mental earnings effect of 8 to 10 percent above that received by continu­ing students.

Duane E. Leigh is a professor of economics at Washington State University. Andrew M. Gill is an as­sociate professor of economics at California State University, Fullerton. The initial draft of this paper was written while Gill was visiting associate professor of economics at Washington State University. The comments of a referee substantially improved the paper. The data used in this article can be ob­tained beginning in August 1997 through July 2000 from Andrew Gill. Department of Economics, Cali­fornia State University, Fullerton, CA 92634.