Rothstein, Donna S. 2007. “High School Employment and Youths’ Academic Achievement.” Journal of Human Resources 42(1): 194–213.
This paper asks whether employment during high school impacts youths’ grade point average. Unlike much of the prior literature, it allows for the endogeneity of the hours and dropout decisions, uses ASVAB test scores, and tests whether youth employment is dynamic. The results indicate that high school employment and its lag have small, negative impacts on academic grade point average for both males and females. The hours effects diminish when a fixed person effect is included, and they become statistically insignificant when hours are instrumented.
Donna. S. Rothstein is a research economist at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The author thanks Alison Aughinbaugh, Matthew Dey, Christopher Flinn, David Neumark, Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, Michael Pergamit, Charles Pierret, participants at the BLS luncheon seminar series, and two anonymous referees for comments on an earlier draft. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the policies of the BLS or the views of other BLS staff members. The public-use NLSY97 data used in this article can be obtained beginning August 2007 through July 2010 from Donna Rothstein, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 Massachusetts Ave., NE, Suite 4945, Washington, DC 20212-0001, Rothstein.Donna@bls.gov. Researchers who wish to use the confidential NLSY97 geocode data can fill out a geocode application available at www.bls.gov/nls/geocodeapp.htm.