Volume 38, Number 1 (Winter) 2003
Gill, Andrew M., and Duanne E. Leigh. 2003. "Do the Returns to Community College Differ Between Academic and Vocational Programs?" Journal of Human Resources 38(1):134-155.
This paper provides new evidence about the payoffs to community colleges' terminal training programs as distinct from their traditional transfer function. Using NLSY data, we offer three main findings. First, four-year college graduates who started at a community college are not at a substantial earnings disadvantage relative to those who started at a four-year college. Second, community college students in terminal training programs enjoy a positive payoff comparable to that received by four-year college starters who do not graduate. Finally, we find evidence of positive self-selection for community college students who choose the terminal training track.
Andrew M. Gill is a professor of economics at California State University, Fullerton. Duane E. Leigh is a professor of economics at Washington State University, Pullman. The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Ted Bird, Michael Hilmer, Audrey Light, Steve Perez, Lakshmi Raut, Wayne Strayer, and Cindy Zoghi, as well as those of seminar and session participants at Cal State Fullerton and the 2001 meeting of the Society of Labor Economists. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning August 2003 through July 2006 from Andrew M. Gill, Department of Economics, California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92834-6848 or agill@fullerton.edu .
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X