American Economic Review Vol. 106 No. 3 2016

The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study

David J. Deming¹; Noam Yuchtman²; Amira Abulafi³; Claudia Goldin⁴; Lawrence F. Katz⁵

¹ Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Gutman 411, Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail: ) · ² Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 (e-mail: ) · ³ National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138. · ⁴ Department of Economics, Harvard University, 229 Littauer, Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail: ) · ⁵ Department of Economics, Harvard University, 224 Littauer, Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail: )

Abstract

We study employers' perceptions of the value of postsecondary degrees using a field experiment. We randomly assign the sector and selectivity of institutions to fictitious resumes and apply to real vacancy postings for business and health jobs on a large online job board. We find that a business bachelor's degree from a for-profit online institution is 22 percent less likely to receive a callback than one from a nonselective public institution. In applications to health jobs, we find that for-profit credentials receive fewer callbacks unless the job requires an external quality indicator such as an occupational license.

DOI

10.1257/aer.20141757

Volume

106

Issue

3

Pages

778-806

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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