The Returns to College Admission for Academically Marginal Students

Zimmerman, Seth

doi:10.1086/676661

Cited by 284 publications

(213 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The mean age at earnings measured is 28, which is similar to other recent studies using administrative earnings and education data (e.g. Andrews et al 2014, Zimmerman 2014.…”

Section: Datasupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Though this could be indicative of manipulation, another possibility is that GPAs cluster at certain numbers mechanically. As noted in past work (Zimmerman 2014, Barreca et al 2015 GPAs tend to spike at whole numbers because the number of combinations that result in whole number GPAs are far larger than the number of combinations that result in decimal GPAs. Since the most common GPA cutoff is 2.0, if students are more likely to obtain exactly a 2.0 mechanically, this could feasibly explain the large spike in the running variable at zero.…”

Section: Specification Checksmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…In the US context, Hoekstra (2009) studies the earnings effect of admission to a selective flagship public university (as opposed to a less selective public university). Zimmerman (2014) studies the impact of gaining admission to a lowranked public university on future earnings. Both of these studies find substantial benefit to gaining admission to the university they study.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Returns to College Persistence for Marginal Students: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from University Dismissal Policies

Ost

Pan

Webber

2018

Journal of Labor Economics

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. We estimate the returns to college using administrative data on college enrollment matched to administrative data on weekly earnings. Utilizing the fact that colleges dismiss lowperforming students based on exact GPA cutoffs, we use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the earnings impacts of college. Dismissed students are permitted to apply for readmission, but since relatively few do so, these students end up completing fewer years of school and are approximately 10 percentage points less likely to graduate college. Our estimates suggest that low-performing students (on the margin of college dismissal) derive substantial earnings benefits from college.JEL Classification: I21, I23, I26

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“…The mean age at earnings measured is 28, which is similar to other recent studies using administrative earnings and education data (e.g. Andrews et al 2014, Zimmerman 2014.…”

Section: Datasupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Specification Checksmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Returns to College Persistence for Marginal Students: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from University Dismissal Policies

Ost

Pan

Webber

2018

Journal of Labor Economics

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“…Zimmerman's (2014) causal estimates rely on a regression discontinuity analysis of bachelor's degree attainment using administrative data from Florida. Specifically, he compares earnings (measured around age 30) and bachelor's degree attainment among students just above and just below the high school GPA requirement for admission to the Florida state university with the weakest state admission requirements.…”

Section: Appendix a Alternative "Causal" Benefit-cost Analysis Of Thementioning

confidence: 99%

The Merits of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence from the Kalamazoo Promise

2016

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in ABSTRACTAs the costs of higher education rise, many communities have begun to adopt their own financial aid strategy: place-based scholarships for students graduating from the local school district. Some placebased scholarships impose merit-and/or need-based restrictions, while others require little more than residency and graduation. In this paper, we examine the reach and cost-effectiveness of the Kalamazoo Promise, one of the more universal and more generous place-based scholarships. Building upon estimates of the program's heterogeneous effects on degree attainment, individual-level scholarship cost data, and projections of future earning profiles by education, we examine the Promise's benefit-cost ratios for different types of students differentiated by income, race, and gender. Although the average break-even rate of return of the program is about 11 percent, rates of return vary greatly by group. The Promise has high returns for both low-income and non-low-income groups, for nonwhites, and for women, while benefit assumptions matter more for whites and men. Our results show that universal scholarships can reach many students and have a high rate of return, particularly for places with a high percentage of African American students. JEL Classification Codes: I21, I22, I24

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“…Saavedra (2009) uncovers an increase in the earnings and employment rate of applicants who are marginally above the entry cutoff at selective universities in Colombia. Zimmerman (2014) estimates the returns to attending a four year university by comparing students who are marginally above and below the admissions cutoff at the least selective university in Florida. Recent studies also use regression discontinuity designs to estimate the returns to different fields of study .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of Higher Education and Earnings: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from the French Baccalaureate

Canaan

Mouganie

2014

SSRN Journal

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An emerging body of literature examines the economic returns to quality of postsecondary education. This literature has predominantly focused on the returns to the most selective universities. However, less is known about the extent to which these gains are realized for the academically marginal student who does not necessarily attend the most selective of institutions. In this paper, we address this question by exploiting the presence of the Baccalauréat Général (or the General Baccalaureate), a degree that students in France must earn to graduate from secondary school and enroll in postsecondary institutions. The degree is awarded upon passing a series of national exams. Students can retake the exam in the same year but the standards for passing are higher in the first round. Our data links individual-level information on secondary and postsecondary education to labor market outcomes, allowing us to track the complete educational and professional paths of all students in our sample. We use a regression discontinuity design that compares the outcomes of students who marginally pass and fail the first round of the French Baccalaureate exam. Marginally passing increases the likelihood of attending a higher quality university and a STEM major. Threshold crossing also raises earnings by 13.6 percent at the age of 27 to 29. After ruling out other channels that could affect earnings, we conclude that increased access to higher quality postsecondary education leads to a significant earnings premium for academically marginal students.JEL Classification: H52, I21, I28, J24 Keywords: Quality of education, returns to education, regression discontinuity design * We would like to thank Kelly Bedard, Olivier Deschênes, Mark Hoekstra, Scott Imberman, Peter Kuhn, Jason Lindo, Shelly Lundberg, Jonathan Meer, Steven Puller and Heather Royer for their invaluable comments and suggestions. We also thank seminar participants at the Applied-Micro brown bag seminar at Texas A&M University, for helpful comments and discussions. Finally, we would like to thank the staff at the "Centre Maurice Halbwachs" for providing us with the data. All errors are our own.

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The Returns to College Admission for Academically Marginal Students

Cited by 284 publications

References 29 publications

The Returns to College Persistence for Marginal Students: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from University Dismissal Policies

The Returns to College Persistence for Marginal Students: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from University Dismissal Policies

The Merits of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence from the Kalamazoo Promise

Quality of Higher Education and Earnings: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from the French Baccalaureate

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