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Author: Black, Dan A.
Resulting in 18 citations.
1. Barron, John M.
Berger, Mark Charles
Black, Dan A.
How Well Do We Measure Training?
Journal of Labor Economics 15,3, pt. 1 (July 1997): 507-528.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/209870
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Training; Training, On-the-Job

This article compares various measures of on-the-job training, from a new source that matches establishments and workers, allowing us to compare the responses of employers and employees to identical training questions. Establishments report 25% more hours of training than do workers, although workers and establishments report similar incidence rates of training. Both establishment and worker measures agree that there is much more informal training than formal training. Further, informal training is measured about as accurately as formal training. Finally, we show that measurement error reduces substantially the observed effect of training, in particular the effect of training on productivity growth
Bibliography Citation
Barron, John M., Mark Charles Berger and Dan A. Black. "How Well Do We Measure Training?" Journal of Labor Economics 15,3, pt. 1 (July 1997): 507-528.
2. Barron, John M.
Berger, Mark Charles
Black, Dan A.
On-the-Job Training
Kalamazoo MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1997.
Also: http://www.upjohninst.org/publications/titles/ojt.html
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Keyword(s): Human Capital; Skills; Training, Employee; Training, On-the-Job; Transfers, Skill

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

From the Introduction: ...Researchers now widely accept that there are two key aspects of training. First, there is the recognition that on-the-job training is an important example of an "investment" in human capital. Like any investment, there are initial costs. For on-the-job training, these costs include the time devoted by the worker and co-workers to learning skills that increase productivity plus the costs of any equipment and material required to teach these skills. Like any investment, the returns to these expenditures occur in future periods. For on-the-job training, these future returns are measured by the increased productivity of the worker during subsequent periods of employment. The second key aspect of on-the-job training is the distinction between "general" and "specific" on-the-job training, a distinction emphasized by Becker in his early works. While all training increases the productivity of the worker at the firm providing the training, general training also increases the productivity of the worker at firms other than the one providing the training. For example, a secretary who learns the use of a standard work-processing program or a doctor who interns at a specific hospital both receive general training, as these skills are transferable to other workplaces. On the other hand, specific on-the-job training increases the productivity of the worker at the firm providing the training, but not at other firms. Resources spent orienting new employees to the practices of their new employer, or teaching employees how to contribute to a unique assembly process or work team, are examples of specific training.
Bibliography Citation
Barron, John M., Mark Charles Berger and Dan A. Black. On-the-Job Training. Kalamazoo MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1997..
3. Black, Dan A.
Charles, Kerwin
Sanders, Seth G.
Problem with Men, The
Presented: Washington, DC, Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center, NLSY97 Tenth Anniversary Conference, May 29-30, 2008
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Gender; Gender Differences

Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Kerwin Charles and Seth G. Sanders. "Problem with Men, The." Presented: Washington, DC, Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center, NLSY97 Tenth Anniversary Conference, May 29-30, 2008.
4. Black, Dan A.
Datta, Rupa
Krishnamurty, Parvati
Mode Effects and Item Nonresponse: Evidence from CPS and NLSY Income Questions
Presented: Anaheim CA, American Association of Public Opinion Research, Sixty-Second Annual, May 2007.
Also: http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/71/3/E485.full
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Association of Public Opinion Research
Keyword(s): Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Income; Interviewing Method; Nonresponse

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Rupa Datta and Parvati Krishnamurty. "Mode Effects and Item Nonresponse: Evidence from CPS and NLSY Income Questions." Presented: Anaheim CA, American Association of Public Opinion Research, Sixty-Second Annual, May 2007.
5. Black, Dan A.
Galdo, Jose
Liu, Liqun
How Robust Are Hedonic Wage Estimates of the Price of Risk? The Final Report. Appendix C.
Report Attachment, Report Number: EE-0483, National Center for Environmental Economics, June 2003.
Also: http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eerm.nsf/vwAN/EE-0483-04.pdf/$file/EE-0483-04.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Keyword(s): Environment, Pollution/Urban Density; Injuries, Workplace; Job Hazards; Methods/Methodology; Risk Perception; Wage Effects; Wage Equations; Wage Models; Wage Theory

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

At least since Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, economists have recognized that workers require compensation to accept the risk of death or dismemberment on the job. While this wage premium provides employers with incentives to reduce the risk on the job, the calculus of the marketplace allows workers and employers to trade the costs of reducing workplace risk against the benefits associated with the reduction.

This calculus, when applied to large numbers of workers, allows a researcher to calculate the value of a statistical life, or the wage reduction associated with reducing the expected number of deaths by one worker. As this value represents the amount of wages that workers are willing to forgo to reduce risk, the value of a statistical life appears to be a useful tool for evaluating individuals' willingness to pay for reductions in risk in other areas. Indeed, it is a measure of the price of risk. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) often considers regulations that both impose costs on industry and reduce the deaths from environmental contamination. While the costs may often be calculated with a great deal of accuracy, the problem for policymakers is to value the corresponding benefits. The price of risk appears to be a useful tool for such evaluations.

When basing policy on estimates of the price of risk, the precision and accuracy of the estimates become of utmost importance. Yet, Viscusi (1993), in his review of labor market studies of the value of life, reports that the majority of the estimates are in the $3 to $7 million range [in December 1990 dollars, p. 1930], and this range excludes studies that Viscusi felt were flawed. While this represents over a 133 percent variation, Viscusi correctly notes that much of the variation should be expected, as the studies used different methodologies and different samples. Workers may differ in their attitudes toward risk, and the mixes of workers in these various studies differ substantially. His review, however, leaves unanswered how much of this variation results from differences in the sample of workers, measures of job risk, and the specification of the estimating equation.

In this report, we use three data sets to estimate the price of risk: the Outgoing Rotation Groups of the Current Population Survey, the March Annual Demographic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979). Labor economists frequently use these three data sets to estimate wage equations. We match these data to two sources of job risk data: the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates from their Survey of Working Conditions and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health estimates from their National Traumatic Occupational Fatality survey. We then use these data to estimate the price of risk.

Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Jose Galdo and Liqun Liu. "How Robust Are Hedonic Wage Estimates of the Price of Risk? The Final Report. Appendix C." Report Attachment, Report Number: EE-0483, National Center for Environmental Economics, June 2003.
6. Black, Dan A.
Hasan, Amer
Lane, Julia
Report on Task 2: Developing a Deeper Understanding of the Labor Market Dynamics of Recently Discharged Veterans
National Opinion Research Center (NORC), the University of Chicago, May 20, 2007.
Also: http://www.dol.gov/vets/research/NORCIIrev3_june_12.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: National Opinion Research Center - NORC
Keyword(s): Gender Differences; Labor Market Demographics; Labor Market Outcomes; Military Service; Racial Differences; Transition, Job to Job; Transitional Programs; Unemployment; Veterans

Introduction
In our previous report, "The Labor Market Trajectories of 20-24 Year Old Veterans," we used a well-known dataset, the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, to examine the labor market outcomes of 20-24 year old veterans 1, 13, 26 and 39 weeks after they exit the military. That study found that employment rates increase and unemployment rates decrease over time, which provides some evidence that the high reported levels of unemployment result from job search.

Although the previous study shed a great deal of light into the dynamics of the labor market behavior of veterans, it is also important to see whether their outcomes immediately after leaving the military differ from that of their civilian counterparts. The core challenge is that veterans who leave military employment are, by definition, transitioning either from one employment to another, or moving out of the labor market. The appropriate civilian counterparts, then, are individuals undergoing similarly significant labor market transitions, either to another employer or out of the labor market.

Therefore, in this report, we examine how veterans move into employment after leaving the military by comparing them to three sets of civilians. The labor market outcomes of veterans are first compared to those of each civilian comparison group in turn, and then are analyzed relative to the outcomes all three comparison groups. The first comparison group is comprised of 20-24 year old civilians who become unemployed after a relatively long period of continuous employment. The second group consists of civilians who had left a single job that was held for a substantial period of time. The third and final civilian comparison group, which most closely mirrors a Current Population Survey cohort, is made up of a random sample of civilians in a particular week, whose outcomes are compared to those of a group of young veterans in the same week. In this way the outcomes of veterans and civilians can be compared during the same calendar time, which means that they are facing common macroeconomic conditions, such as unemployment rates, job creation, and labor market demand.

Of course, in order to correctly make the comparisons, it is important to control as much as possible for the differences in the characteristics of veterans relative to civilians. Thus, after making straightforward comparisons of veterans to those of the three civilian cohort groups, we assess the labor market outcomes of veterans relative to those of our civilian comparison groups, controlling for important demographic and labor market characteristics, such as race, gender, ability and receipt of unemployment compensation benefits. We apply these controls beginning in Section 4 of this study, entitled "Labor Market Dynamics."

In Section 5, we differentiate veteran outcomes by type of military service, whether in the regular military, National Guard or Reserves. Section 6 analyzes the impact of Unemployment Compensation benefits. Finally, we compare the post-separation earnings of veterans to those of their civilian cohorts.

Our core findings are as follows:

  • Discharged veterans are more likely to be employed than their civilian counterparts. They are also less likely to be out of the labor force.
  • These results are consistent, but differ in magnitude, depending on whether the veterans were regular military or in the National Guard or Reserves. By and large, both employment and labor market participation are higher, and unemployment is lower, for those whose service was in the Guard or Reserves.
  • The financial returns to military service are significant. Former service members earn more than any of the civilian groups to which they were compared.

Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Amer Hasan and Julia Lane. "Report on Task 2: Developing a Deeper Understanding of the Labor Market Dynamics of Recently Discharged Veterans." National Opinion Research Center (NORC), the University of Chicago, May 20, 2007.
7. Black, Dan A.
Haviland, Amelia
Sanders, Seth G.
Taylor, Lowell J.
Gender Wage Disparities among the Highly Educated
Working Paper, Centre for Economic Performance, London, England, November 2003.
Also: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/05-12-03-BLA.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics & Political Science
Keyword(s): Gender Differences; Wage Gap

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We argue that among the highly educated, pre-labor market factors are responsible for more than half the measured gender wage gap. Further, women's lower level of labor market experience accounts for a substantial portion of the remaining gap. The non-parametric analysis we employ makes no functional forms assumption and forces us to directly address the support issue. Without careful attention to these two issues and more accurate data on education attainment, the role of pre-labor market factors and women's lower level of labor market experience in explaining gender wage disparities is greatly understated.
Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Amelia Haviland, Seth G. Sanders and Lowell J. Taylor. "Gender Wage Disparities among the Highly Educated." Working Paper, Centre for Economic Performance, London, England, November 2003.
8. Black, Dan A.
Hsu, Yu-Chieh
Sanders, Seth G.
Schofield, Lynne Steuerle
Taylor, Lowell J.
The Methuselah Effect: The Pernicious Impact of Unreported Deaths on Old Age Mortality Estimates
NBER Working Paper No. 23574, National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2017.
Also: http://www.nber.org/papers/w23574
Cohort(s): Older Men
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Keyword(s): Data Quality/Consistency; Ethnic Differences; Hispanics; Mortality; National Health Interview Survey (NHIS); Racial Differences

We examine inferences about old age mortality that arise when researchers use survey data matched to death records. We show that even small rates of failure to match respondents can lead to substantial bias in the measurement of mortality rates at older ages. This type of measurement error is consequential for three strands in the demographic literature: (1) the deceleration in mortality rates at old ages, (2) the black-white mortality crossover, and (3) the relatively low rate of old age mortality among Hispanics--often called the "Hispanic paradox." Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men (NLS-OM) matched to death records in both the U.S. Vital Statistics system and the Social Security Death Index, we demonstrate that even small rates of missing mortality matching plausibly lead to an appearance of mortality deceleration when none exists, and can generate a spurious black-white mortality crossover. We confirm these findings using data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) matched to the U.S. Vital Statistics system, a dataset known as the "gold standard" (Cowper et al., 2002) for estimating age-specific mortality. Moreover, with these data we show that the Hispanic paradox is also plausibly explained by a similar undercount.
Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Yu-Chieh Hsu, Seth G. Sanders, Lynne Steuerle Schofield and Lowell J. Taylor. "The Methuselah Effect: The Pernicious Impact of Unreported Deaths on Old Age Mortality Estimates." NBER Working Paper No. 23574, National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2017.
9. Black, Dan A.
Krishnamurty, Parvati
Lane, Julia
Samardick, Ruth
A Deeper Look at the Labor Market Outcomes of Young Veterans
Presented: Honolulu, HI, Western Economics Association Annual Conference - Defense Track, July 2008
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Western Economic Association International
Keyword(s): Labor Market Outcomes; Veterans

Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Parvati Krishnamurty, Julia Lane and Ruth Samardick. "A Deeper Look at the Labor Market Outcomes of Young Veterans." Presented: Honolulu, HI, Western Economics Association Annual Conference - Defense Track, July 2008.
10. Black, Dan A.
Lane, Julia
Report on Task 1: The Labor Market Trajectories of 20-24 Year Old Veterans
National Opinion Research Center (NORC), the University of Chicago, January 1, 2007.
Also: http://www.dol.gov/vets/research/trajectories_rev.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: National Opinion Research Center - NORC
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Labor Market Demographics; Labor Market Outcomes; Military Service; Racial Differences; Training, Occupational; Unemployment; Veterans

Introduction
Recent statistics reporting high rates of unemployment for 20-24 year old veterans have been a source of substantial concern. Since high levels of unemployment can result from multiple causes, including lack of job opportunities or lengthened search for jobs, with different policy responses, it is important to analyze the phenomenon in more detail.

In this study we use a well-known dataset, the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine the labor market outcomes of 20-24 year old veterans 1, 13, 26 and 39 weeks after they exit the military. We begin by describing the dataset, and then document what proportion of veterans are employed, unemployed, out of the labor force and in military service at each point in time. This examination includes an analysis of how much veterans' experiences vary by their characteristics, such as race and ASVAB scores. We conclude by describing the labor market trajectories of unemployed veterans.

This report represents the first part of a two part study. The second part will expand on this snapshot analysis by providing a more detailed analysis of the factors contributing to unemployment, and the pathways taken to work. Since recent veterans may be productively using unemployment compensation to search for the best possible job, or to engage in additional study, the analysis of outcomes will be expanded to include a study of the educational attainment, and earnings of veterans, as well as a comparison of the outcomes of veterans to observationally similar non-veterans. The study will also examine, to the extent possible, veterans' use of training programs. In addition, since the unemployment surge coincided with a surge in Reserve/National Guard deployments, the second part will also examine, to the extent possible, the variation in outcomes for regular military versus Reserve/National Guard service members.

Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A. and Julia Lane. "Report on Task 1: The Labor Market Trajectories of 20-24 Year Old Veterans." National Opinion Research Center (NORC), the University of Chicago, January 1, 2007.
11. Black, Dan A.
Michael, Robert T.
Pierret, Charles R.
Knowing Younger Workers Better: Information from the NLSY97.
Monthly Labor Review 131,9 (September 1. 2008): 42-51.
Also: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/09/art3abs.htm
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Employment, Youth; NLS Description; Schooling; Wages, Youth

Papers from the 10th anniversary conference of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort, addressed schooling, employment, adolescent behaviors, and many other aspects of youths lives [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Robert T. Michael and Charles R. Pierret. "Knowing Younger Workers Better: Information from the NLSY97." Monthly Labor Review 131,9 (September 1. 2008): 42-51.
12. Black, Dan A.
Sanders, Seth G.
Schofield, Lynne Steuerle
Taylor, Lowell J.
Regional Differences in the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality: Evidence from the NLSY
Presented: Atlanta GA, American Economic Association Annual Meeting, January 2019
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: American Economic Association
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Cognitive Ability; Geocoded Data; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Mobility; Noncognitive Skills; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In a series of important papers (e.g., Chetty et al., 2014, and Chetty et al., forthcoming), Raj Chetty and coauthors show that there is substantial variation in the geography of intergenerational mobility; children born to parents with moderate income are more upwardly mobile in some places than in others. Chetty and Hendren ascribe a casual role to place‐based factors. In this paper we seek to understand the mechanisms behind this phenomenon by studying intergenerational links in cognitive and non‐cognitive ability--using data elements from mothers in the NLSY79 and their children in the NLSY79‐Child. There are two innovations in our study. First, in analyzing parent‐child links in cognition, we use item response level data collected for the purpose of constructing latent variables (the AFQT, PIAT, etc.), as in Junker et al. (2015). Second, we employ restricted‐use data elements to identify geography, matched to statistics constructed from Census data, and from the data files posted by the "Equality of Opportunity Project" team (Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and colleagues). The goal is to see if the place‐based upward mobility documented in the work in Chetty and coauthors is driven in part by improved "upward mobility" across generations in cognitive and non‐cognitive ability.
Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Seth G. Sanders, Lynne Steuerle Schofield and Lowell J. Taylor. "Regional Differences in the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality: Evidence from the NLSY." Presented: Atlanta GA, American Economic Association Annual Meeting, January 2019.
13. Black, Dan A.
Smith, Jeffrey A.
Estimating the Returns to College Quality with Multiple Proxies for Quality
Working Paper, Center for Policy Research-Syracuse University and Department of Economics, University of Maryland, February 2005
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Maryland
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); College Characteristics; College Graduates; Colleges; Gender Differences; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Existing studies of the effects of college quality on earnings typically rely on a single proxy variable for college quality. This study questions the wisdom of this approach given that a single proxy likely measures college quality with substantial error. We begin by considering the parameter of interest and its relation to the parameter estimated in the literature; this analysis reveals the potential for substantial bias. We then consider three econometric approaches to the problem that involve the use of multiple proxies for college quality: combining the multiple proxies via factor analysis, using the additional proxies as instruments, and a GMM estimator derived from a structural measurement error model that generalizes the classical measurement error model. Our estimates suggest that the existing literature understates the wage effects of college quality.
Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A. and Jeffrey A. Smith. "Estimating the Returns to College Quality with Multiple Proxies for Quality." Working Paper, Center for Policy Research-Syracuse University and Department of Economics, University of Maryland, February 2005.
14. Black, Dan A.
Smith, Jeffrey A.
Estimating the Returns to College Quality with Multiple Proxies for Quality
Journal of Labor Economics 24,3 (July 2006): 701-728.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/505067
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); College Characteristics; College Graduates; Gender Differences; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

Existing studies of the effects of college quality on wages typically rely on a single proxy variable for college quality. This study questions the wisdom of using a single proxy given that it likely contains substantial measurement error. We consider four econometric approaches to the problem that involve the use of multiple proxies for college quality: factor analysis, instruments variables, a method recently proposed by Lubotsky and Wittenberg, and a GMM estimator. Our estimates suggest that the existing literature understates the wage effects of college quality and illustrate the value of using multiple proxies in this and other similar contexts.
Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A. and Jeffrey A. Smith. "Estimating the Returns to College Quality with Multiple Proxies for Quality." Journal of Labor Economics 24,3 (July 2006): 701-728.
15. Black, Dan A.
Smith, Jeffrey A.
Evaluating the Evidence from the Literature on the Returns to College Quality
Presented: Atlanta, GA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2002
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): College Education; Male Sample

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper makes three contributions to the literature on the earnings effects of college quality. First, we present evidence on the returns to college quality for men from the NLSY. Our evidence assumes that the rich data in the NLSY suffice to control for the non-random selection of students. Second, we show that studies using only a single variable, such as mean test scores to measure quality understate its effects. Such studies ignore the fact single measures represent error-ridden proxies for the underlying quality. Third, we examine the support problem. If high quality universities have very few low quality students, then the earnings effects in studies that use linear models depend heavily on the linear functional form restriction. We find that the support problem is important but not over-whelming since there are some, but not many, low ability students at good universities and high ability students at low quality universities.
Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A. and Jeffrey A. Smith. "Evaluating the Evidence from the Literature on the Returns to College Quality." Presented: Atlanta, GA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2002.
16. Black, Dan A.
Smith, Jeffrey A.
How Robust Is the Evidence on the Effects of College Quality? Evidence from Matching
Journal of Econometrics 121,1-2 (July/August 2004): 99-125.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304407603002562
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Colleges; Gender Differences; Modeling; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

We estimate the effects of college quality using propensity score matching methods and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort. Matching allows us to relax the linear functional form assumption implicit in regression-based estimates. We also examine the support problem by determining whether there are individuals attending low-quality colleges similar to those attending high-quality colleges, and find that the support condition holds only weakly. Thus, the linear functional form plays an important role in regression-based estimates (and matching estimates have large standard errors). Point estimates from regression and matching are similar for men but not women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A. and Jeffrey A. Smith. "How Robust Is the Evidence on the Effects of College Quality? Evidence from Matching." Journal of Econometrics 121,1-2 (July/August 2004): 99-125.
17. Black, Dan A.
Xia, Kanru
Michael, Robert T.
Propensity to Agree to be an NLSY97 Respondent: Evidence from the Screener Data
Presented: Washington, DC, Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center, NLSY97 Tenth Anniversary Conference, May 29-30, 2008.
Also: http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/Research/conferences/NLSYConf/pdf/BMichael_Propensity_ToBe_NLSY97_Respondent.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Data Quality/Consistency; Research Methodology

This paper uses information from the NLSY97 screener data to model which of the eligible youths did in fact agree to become respondents in the first round of the survey. Reflecting the high quality of the NORC field effort, 92 percent of the eligible youths become NLSY97 respondents. The initial household screener contains information about the youth, the family, and the neighborhood; this information is used to model the propensity to participate in the survey for all eligible youths. For those who did participate – the respondents in the NLSY97 – the paper offers a variable that can be used to correct for selection bias into the survey. That predicted propensity is then compared to the subsequent behavior by the youth regarding completion of later rounds of the survey.
Bibliography Citation
Black, Dan A., Kanru Xia and Robert T. Michael. "Propensity to Agree to be an NLSY97 Respondent: Evidence from the Screener Data." Presented: Washington, DC, Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center, NLSY97 Tenth Anniversary Conference, May 29-30, 2008.
18. Daniel, Kermit
Black, Dan A.
Smith, Jeffrey A.
Racial Differences in the Effects of College Quality and Student Body Diversity on Wages
In: Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action. G. Orfield, ed. Cambridge MA: Harvard Education Publishing Group, 2001: pp. 221-231
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Harvard Eduation Publishing Group
Keyword(s): College Enrollment; Educational Returns; Gender Differences; Racial Differences; Wage Differentials; Wage Models

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This chapter presents a study which used data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to examine racial differences in the effects of college quality and student diversity on wages. The study investigated whether the economic benefit of college quality might be higher for groups helped by diversity programs and whether a racially diverse student body would directly benefit all students. The NLSY provided data on student characteristics and demographics, student ability, college attended, and post-college wages. For each respondent who attended college, researchers collected data on college characteristics from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and U.S. News and World Report's Directory of Colleges and Universities. There was a much larger effect of college quality on the later wages of blacks than non-blacks. Attending a college with moderate student diversity, as measured by the fraction of black students, raised earnings for both black and non-black men. For women, there was a weaker effect that applied only to black women. In regard to the effects of college quality on black and non-black students, there was an effect on black male students from three to four times as large as that for non-black male students. (SM) Copyright ERIC.
Bibliography Citation
Daniel, Kermit, Dan A. Black and Jeffrey A. Smith. "Racial Differences in the Effects of College Quality and Student Body Diversity on Wages" In: Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action. G. Orfield, ed. Cambridge MA: Harvard Education Publishing Group, 2001: pp. 221-231