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Author: Strayer, Wayne Earle
Resulting in 5 citations.
1. Light, Audrey L.
Strayer, Wayne Earle
Determinants of College Completion: School Quality or Student Ability?
Journal of Human Resources 35,2 (Spring 2000): 299-332.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/146327
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): College Education; College Enrollment; College Graduates; Colleges; Modeling, Probit; School Completion; School Quality; Skills

We investigate whether the "match" between student ability and college quality is an important determinant of college graduation rates. We jointly estimate a multinomial probit model of college attendance decisions in which the alternatives are no college and attendance at college in four quality categories, and a binomial probit model of subsequent graduation decisions. By allowing the error terms to be correlated across alternatives and time periods, we identify the effects of observed factors net of their correlation with unobservables. We find that students of all ability levels have higher chances of graduating if the quality level of their college "matches" their observed skill level.
Bibliography Citation
Light, Audrey L. and Wayne Earle Strayer. "Determinants of College Completion: School Quality or Student Ability?" Journal of Human Resources 35,2 (Spring 2000): 299-332.
2. Light, Audrey L.
Strayer, Wayne Earle
From Bakke to Hopwood: Does Race Affect Attendance and Completion?
Review of Economics and Statistics 84,1 (February 2002): 34-44.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3211737
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Keyword(s): Affirmative Action; College Dropouts; College Education; College Enrollment; College Graduates; Educational Attainment; Minorities

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

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.
Bibliography Citation
Light, Audrey L. and Wayne Earle Strayer. "From Bakke to Hopwood: Does Race Affect Attendance and Completion?" Review of Economics and Statistics 84,1 (February 2002): 34-44.
3. Light, Audrey L.
Strayer, Wayne Earle
Who Receives the College Wage Premium? Assessing the Labor Market Returns to Degrees and College Transfer Patterns
Journal of Human Resources 39,3 (Summer 2004): 746-774.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3558995
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): College Education; Colleges; Educational Attainment; Heterogeneity; Modeling; Wage Determination; Wage Models; Wage Theory

Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we estimate wage models in which college-educated workers are classified according to their degree attainment, college type, and college transfer status. The detailed taxonomy produces modest improvements in explanatory power relative to standard specifications, and reveals considerable heterogeneity in the predicted wages of college-educated workers. We find that transfer students receive an "indirect" wage benefit insofar as changing colleges allows them to earn a degree. Some transfer students receive an additional "direct" wage benefit, presumably because switching schools increases their skill investment opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Bibliography Citation
Light, Audrey L. and Wayne Earle Strayer. "Who Receives the College Wage Premium? Assessing the Labor Market Returns to Degrees and College Transfer Patterns." Journal of Human Resources 39,3 (Summer 2004): 746-774.
4. Strayer, Wayne Earle
Returns to High School Quality: College Choice and Earnings
Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1997
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Colleges; Earnings; Education, Secondary; High School; Higher Education; Human Capital; Modeling; School Quality; Schooling; Simultaneity; Wage Growth

Despite thirty years of research on the subject, it remains unclear whether high school quality affects labor market earnings. Existing studies typically rely on reduced form wage equations with quality measures among the regressors to assess the impact of school quality on wages. School quality is assumed to represent a dimension of human capital and, therefore, to influence wages in the same manner as time spent in school (school quantity). My study extends the previous research on school quality by focusing on the structural effects of high school quality on labor market earnings. I specify a model of simultaneous college choice and earnings determination that captures two separate effects of school quality on earnings. First, measured high school quality affects a graduating high school student's choice of college. College choice, in turn, affects the individual's post school earnings. Second, the additional skills accumulated via a higher quality high school translate into higher future wages. Modelling the college choice jointly with the wage process identifies both of these important effects and eliminates selection bias inherent in studies that ignore the college choice. In the econometric specification of my model, the unobserved components associated with each college alternative as well as the wage process are permitted to covary, allowing for greater behavioral generality and avoiding the "independence of irrelevant alternatives" assumption commonly made in multinomial discrete choice models. The use of a recently developed simulation method allows me to estimate my model without calculating the prohibitive multidimensional integrals necessary for standard maximum likelihood analysis with non-independent error distributions. My study is one of the first applications of this simulation method in the literature on school choice. For estimation, I use a unique data set that combines the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Database. The data set includes extensive information on personal and family characteristics, schooling, and labor market experiences for a sample of approximately 5,000 high school graduates born in 1957-64. In addition, it has detailed information on the high schools and colleges attended by these individuals.
Bibliography Citation
Strayer, Wayne Earle. Returns to High School Quality: College Choice and Earnings. Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1997.
5. Strayer, Wayne Earle
The Returns to School Quality: College Choice and Earnings
Journal of Labor Economics 20,3 (July 2002): 475-503.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/339674
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Colleges; Earnings; Education; Educational Returns; School Quality; Schooling

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.
Bibliography Citation
Strayer, Wayne Earle. "The Returns to School Quality: College Choice and Earnings." Journal of Labor Economics 20,3 (July 2002): 475-503.