This article extends the research on school quality by focusing on the structural effects of high school quality on earnings. I specify a model of college choice and earnings determination that captures two separate effects of school quality on earnings. First, school quality affects a high school student's choice of college. College choice, in turn, affects the individual's postschool earnings. Second, the additional skills accumulated via a higher quality high school directly influence wages. The results suggest that high school quality influences earnings by affecting college choice behavior, while the direct effect of school quality on earnings is less evident.

In light of recent, state-level actions banning racial preference in college admissions decisions, we investigate how whites and minorities differ in their college-going behavior. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we estimate a sequential model of college attendance and graduation decisions that allows correlations among the errors. Our estimates reveal that minorities are more likely than observationally equivalent whites to attend colleges of all quality levels. Being a minority has a positive effect on graduation probabilities, but, overall, minorities are less likely than their white counterparts to complete college because they possess fewer favorable unobserved factors.