Journal of Human Resources

We estimate the labor market effect of attending a highly selective college, using the College and Beyond Survey linked to Social Security Administration data. We extend earlier work by estimating effects for students that entered college in 1976 over a longer time horizon (from 1983 through 2007) and for a more recent cohort (1989). For both cohorts, the effects of college characteristics on earnings are sizeable (and similar in magnitude) in standard regression models. In selectionadjusted models, these effects generally fall to close to zero; however, these effects remain large for certain subgroups, such as for black and Hispanic students.