Panel and time-series data describing the green-revolution period in India are used to assess the effects of exogenous technical change on the returns to schooling, the effects of schooling on the profitability of technical change, and the effects of technical change and school availability on household schooling investment. The results indicate that the returns to (primary) schooling increased during a period of rapid technical progress, particularly in areas with the highest growth rates. Such increases induced private investment in schooling, net of changes in wealth, wages, and the availability of schools, and school expansion importantly increased levels of schooling.

We use data from an agricultural labour market in which workers receive both time- and piece-rate wages and shift frequently among employers and tasks, to assess the roles of comparative advantage, information problems and preferences in determining the allocation of workers. The estimates which impose minimal structure not implied by economic theory are consistent with a one-factor productivity model, and indicate that information asymmetries are present but workers are sorted according to comparative advantage. In particular, the disproportionate presence of female workers in weeding activities is due not to worker or employer preferences but to comparative advantage and statistical discrimination.

Panel and time-series data describing the green-revolution period in India are used to assess the effects of exogenous technical change on the returns to schooling, the effects of schooling on the profitability of technical change, and the effects of technical change and school availability on household schooling investment. The results indicate that the returns to (primary) schooling increased during a period of rapid technical progress, particularly in areas with the highest growth rates. Such increases induced private investment in schooling, net of changes in wealth, wages, and the availability of schools, and school expansion importantly increased levels of schooling.

The authors assess the impact of college quality on women's earnings and the influence of family and individual endowments on college choice using new data from a survey of identical and nonidentical twins born in Minnesota. The estimates reject models that ignore school choice. The statistically preferred estimates suggest that Ph.D.-granting, private universities with well-paid senior faculty and smaller enrollments produce students who have significantly higher earnings later in life. Both the quantity of schooling and the quality of schooling resources are allocated to higher-endowed individuals, which exacerbates preexisting inequality in human capital and biases conventional estimates of school quality effects.