This paper uses a survey of graduates from two cohort years (1985 and 1990) to examine the determinants of overeducation in the UK. We determine whether or not graduates are matched in jobs for which degrees are required. Longitudinal comparisons up to 11 years after graduation permit examination of how the matching process alters over time. The implications of mismatch for job satisfaction and earnings over the career cycle are traced. We find that cross-sectional measures of mismatch obscure significant changes for individuals over time; that the speed of movement into and out of matched work is important; and that both job satisfaction and earnings are significantly adversely affected by mismatch.

This article systematically reviews U.S. evidence from cross-sectional research on educational outcomes when schools must compete with each other. Competition typically is measured by using either the Herfindahl Index or the enrollment rate at an alternative school choice. Outcomes are academic test scores, graduation/attainment, expenditures/efficiency, teacher quality, students’ post-school wages, and local housing prices. The sampling strategy identified more than 41 relevant empirical studies. A sizable majority report beneficial effects of competition, and many report statistically significant correlations. For each study, the effect size of an increase of competition by one standard deviation is reported. The positive gains from competition are modest in scope with respect to realistic changes in levels of competition. The review also notes several methodological challenges and recommends caution in reasoning from point estimates to public policy.

Chapter 3. Cost Concepts 45 3.1. The Concept of Costs 46 3.2. Cost per Unit 49 3.3. Costs and the Theory of Change 51 3.4. Costs Data and Budgetary Information 54 3.5.Motivation for Cost Analysis 56 3.6. Conclusions 58 Discussion Questions 59 Exercises 59 Chapter 4. The Ingredients Method 61 4.1. Identifying Ingredients 62 4.2. Specifying Ingredients 63 4.3. Sources of Ingredients Information 71 4.4. Conclusions 74 Discussion Questions 75 Exercises 75 Chapter 5. Placing Values on Ingredients 77 5.1. Methods for Valuing Ingredients 78 5.2. Placing Dollar Values on Ingredients 82 5.3. Costs Over Multiple Years 93 5.4. Conclusions 100 Discussion Questions 100 Exercises 101 Chapter 6. Analyzing and Reporting Costs 103 6.1. Tabulating Total Cost Using a Cost Worksheet 104 6.2. Reporting Costs 109 6.3. Allocating Costs Among Constituencies 117 6.4. Analyzing Cost Determinants and Generalizing Costs 123 6.5. Conclusions 128 Discussion Questions 129 Exercises 129 Chapter 7. Effectiveness 131 7.1. Specifying Effectiveness 132 7.2. Methods for Identifying Effectiveness 141 7.3. Utility Analysis 149 7.4. Conclusions 162 Discussion Questions 163 Exercises 163 Chapter 8. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis 8.1. Cost-Effectiveness Ratios 166 8.2. Alternative Cost-Effectiveness Metrics 169

There is a growing body of research emphasizing the advantages of teaching students social and emotional (SE) skills in school. Here we examine the economic value of these skills within a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) framework. Our examination has three parts. First, we describe how the current method of BCA must be expanded to adequately evaluate SE skills, and we identify important decisions analysts must make. Second, we review the evidence on the benefits of SE skills, again noting key methodological issues with respect to shadow pricing. Finally, we perform BCA of four selected social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions: 4Rs; Second Step, Life Skills Training; and Responsive Classroom. These analyses illustrate both methodological and empirical challenges in estimating net present values for these interventions. Even with these challenges, we find that the benefits of these interventions substantially outweigh the costs. We highlight promising areas of research for improving the application of BCA to SEL.

This article reviews the existing literature on the economic and other benefits of attending community college. First, the article reports on the earnings gains across all students and reviews the evidence for subgroups by gender, minority status, and credits accumulated. The article then reviews the methodological challenges associated with calculating earnings gains from attending a community college. Despite these challenges, the evidence for the significant earnings gains from community college attendance appears to be compelling. The second part of the article reviews the literature on a broader spectrum of gains, such as health, crime, and welfare reliance. This literature is very limited and potentially offers an important area for further research to establish the full returns from community college attendance.

At an annual cost of roughly $7 billion nationally, remedial coursework is one of the single largest interventions intended to improve outcomes for underprepared college students. But like a costly medical treatment with non-trivial side effects, the value of remediation overall depends upon whether those most likely to benefit can be identified in advance. Our analysis uses administrative data and a rich predictive model to examine the accuracy of remedial screening tests, either instead of or in addition to using high school transcript data to determine remedial assignment. We find that roughly one in four test-takers in math and one in three test-takers in English are severely mis-assigned under current test-based policies, with mis-assignments to remediation much more common than mis-assignments to college-level coursework. We find that using high school transcript information-either instead of or in addition to test scores-could significantly reduce the prevalence of assignment errors. Further, we find that the choice of screening device has significant implications for the racial and gender composition of both remedial and college-level courses. Finally, we find that if institutions took account of students' high school performance, they could remediate substantially fewer students without lowering success rates in college-level courses.

Using data from two cohorts of graduates, this article examines three aspects of over-education. First, using three new measures, we present an estimate of graduate over-education in the UK. We find that the scale of over-education varies with measurement techniques, with weak correlations between the three measures. Second, across the three measures we estimate the effects of over-education on earnings and job satisfaction. The effects of over-education on earnings and job satisfaction are similar, not withstanding the measures identifying different individuals as being over-educated. One finding is that the effects of being over-educated are more significant for female graduates than male, although it is ambiguous which gender is more prone to over-education. Third, we examine another source of ambiguity regarding over-education, namely that firms upgrade the tasks they allocate to their employees who appear to be over-educated. We find that, for graduates, job quality for the over-educated is not converging to that of the appropriately educated.

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