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  5. Careers and Classrooms: How Labor Market Opportunities and Education Decisions Interact
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Careers and Classrooms: How Labor Market Opportunities and Education Decisions Interact

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (CST)

Hilton Riverside, Grand Salon B Sec 12
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Andrew Foote, U.S. Census Bureau

Connecting Higher Education to Workplace Activities and Earnings

Hung Chau
,
University of Pittsburgh
Sarah Bana
,
Chapman University
Baptiste Bouvier
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Morgan Frank
,
University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

Higher education is a source of skill acquisition for many middle and high skilled jobs. But what specific skills do universities impart on students to prepare them for desirable careers?
In this study, we analyze a large novel corpora of over one million syllabi from US educational institutions to connect higher education to the work activities in the US economy as reported by the US Department of Labor. First, we show how differences in taught skills both within and between college majors correspond to earnings differences of recent graduates. Further, we use the co-occurrence of taught skills across all of academia to predict the skills that will be taught in a major moving forward. Our unified information system connecting workplace skills to the skills taught during higher education can improve the workforce development of high-skilled workers, inform educational programs of future trends, and enable employers to quantify the skills of potential workers.

Suspended from Work and School: Impacts of Layoff Events and Unemployment Insurance on Student Disciplinary Incidence

Riley Acton
,
Miami University
Jo Alkhafaji-King
,
New York University
Austin Smith
,
Miami University

Abstract

We study the effects of local labor market shocks and state unemployment insurance (UI) policies on student discipline outcomes in U.S. public schools. By leveraging data on both school-level disciplinary incidence and local, firm-level layoffs across 23 states, we find that – absent UI benefits – a one standard deviation increase in annual city-level layoff exposure increases a school's rate of out-of-school suspensions by 6.3% from its mean. However, these effects are largely mitigated by sufficiently generous UI benefits. Specifically, we estimate that on average, between $600 and $625 in maximum weekly benefits is able to effectively nullify the impact of layoffs on out-of-school suspensions; yet, at the mean level of UI benefits in our sample, we still expect out-of-school suspensions to increase by 2% from its mean given a one standard deviation increase in city-level layoff prevalence. These effects are driven by large impacts on Black and male students, and we further document that layoff shocks can increase the Black-white gap in out-of-school suspensions when UI benefit levels are low.

Does Free Community College Change Who Enlists in the Military? Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence from Tennessee Promise

Michael Brown
,
University of Tennessee
Celeste K. Carruthers
,
University of Tennessee
Michael S. Kofoed
,
U.S. Military Academy West Point
Jenna Webb Kramer
,
RAND Corporation
Aaron Phipps
,
United States Military Academy West Point

Abstract

State and local college Promise programs are growing in number and scope in the United States. A “free college” message from a Promise program may lead some students to enroll in college directly after high school rather than attain education benefits through military service and the GI Bill. We find qualitative and quantitative evidence of this substitution in Tennessee, where last-dollar tuition-free community college has been available to every high school graduate since 2015. In 19 focus groups with 60 total participants, students describe the importance of financial aid in their decision to go to college, and the effect that Tennessee’s Promise program had on their decision to enlist versus enroll. Quantitative analyses support these sentiments. Using 2004-2019 data on all new military enlistments and enlistee ASVAB scores, our quasi-experimental research design studies the effect of Promise in Tennessee as it grew from one county to the state. We find that the introduction of Promise reduced a county’s total enlistments by perhaps 20%, and that the composition of successful enlistees shifted to favor recruits who scored higher on automotive and mechanical sections of the ASVAB.

From Studying Books to Shipping Them: The Effect of Warehouse Openings on Community College Enrollment

Andrew Foote
,
U.S. Census Bureau
Michel Grosz
,
Federal Trade Commission
Cody Orr
,
U.S. Census Bureau

Abstract

Employment in warehouses and distribution centers has grown rapidly over the past few decades, due in large part to the continued rise of online commerce. Between 2000 and 2020, for example, employment in transportation and warehousing grew by 42%, according to the Census’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). Many of these large facilities are located in the outlying counties around urban areas, which often lack other employment options. These facilities represent new employment opportunities, primarily for workers with low education levels.

In this paper we study the effect of warehouse and distribution center openings on enrollment in community colleges. Our analysis takes two parts. First, we identify the precise location of all new warehouses, distribution centers, and similar facilities since 1995 using establishment-level data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). We estimate the effect of these new employment opportunities on enrollment in nearby colleges, using national-level data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), with new estimation techniques in staggered differences-in-differences (e.g. Goodman-Bacon 2021, Callaway and Sant’Anna 2021).

Second, we use individual- and establishment-level data on enrollment, employment, and establishment locations from Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes and LEHD. These data provide detailed employment and educational enrollment information for most postsecondary students in many states, and longitudinal information on establishment locations, industry, and employment size. Using these data, we study the employment and enrollment trajectories of students who live near these new facilities to understand the student’s decision to seek employment there. These data allow us to observe students’ earnings, as well as their enrollment persistence and eventual program completion.

Discussant(s)
Andrew Barr
,
Texas A&M University
Eliza Forsythe
,
University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Mark Hoekstra
,
Texas A&M University
JEL Classifications
  • J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor
  • I2 - Education and Research Institutions