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Source: Department of Economics, University of Maryland

Resulting in 4 citations.

1.	Black, Dan A. Smith, Jeffrey A.
1.	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.

2.	Imberman, Scott Andrew
2.	Essays on the Economics of Education Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Maryland, 2008 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Maryland Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); College Education; Educational Attainment; Educational Outcomes; Family Influences; Geographical Variation; School Characteristics/Rating/Safety Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Part I: Charter schools are publicly funded schools that, in exchange for expanded accountability, receive more autonomy and experience fewer regulations than traditional public schools. Previous work has found mixed evidence on the impacts of charter schools on both charter and non-charter students. However, these studies focus almost exclusively on test scores and may not fully account for endogenous movements of students and location of schools. Using data from an anonymous large urban school district, I investigate how charter schools affect both charter and noncharter students. In the first chapter I look at the effects of charter schools on charter students. I find that charter schools generate improvements in student behavior and attendance but the effects on test scores differ by subject. These results change little after correcting for selection based on changes in outcomes, endogenous attrition, or persistence. In the second chapter I investigate whether charters affect students who remain in non-charter schools. I find little evidence of charter school impacts on non-charter students. However I also find evidence that regressions using school fixed-effects may be biased. Changes in peer characteristics do not appear to play a large role in the charter impacts.
	Bibliography Citation Imberman, Scott Andrew. Essays on the Economics of Education. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Maryland, 2008.

3.	Zhang, Ye
3.	Asymmetric Information, Employer Learning, and the Job Mobility of Young Men Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Maryland - College Park, December 2006. Also: http://economics.missouri.edu/seminars/files/2007/zhang_jan26_2007.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Maryland Keyword(s): Learning, Asymmetric; Schooling; Wages Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper develops an asymmetric employer learning model in which endogenous job mobility is both a direct result of intensified adverse selection and a signal used by outside employers to update their expectations about workers' productive ability. The previous literature on asymmetric employer learning builds on two-period mover-stayer models and finds little empirical evidence of the differential impacts of ability and education on wages across tenure levels. This paper extends the mover-stayer framework by allowing the employment history to be observed by recruiting firms in a three-period model. I derive new empirical implications regarding the relationship between wage rates, ability, schooling and overall measures of job mobility. Testing the model with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY-79), I find strong evidence supporting the three-period asymmetric employer learning model.
	Bibliography Citation Zhang, Ye. "Asymmetric Information, Employer Learning, and the Job Mobility of Young Men." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Maryland - College Park, December 2006.

4.	Zhang, Ye
4.	Essays in Labor Economics Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Maryland - College Park, 2007. DAI-A 68/07, Jan 2008. Also: https://drum.umd.edu/dspace/bitstream/1903/7232/1/umi-umd-4631.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Maryland Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing, Adolescent; Educational Attainment; Endogeneity; Fertility; Labor Economics; Modeling; Mothers, Education; Variables, Independent - Covariate; Wage Rates Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. My dissertation is composed of two essays in Labor Economics. The first chapter examines how employers learn about workers' unobserved productivity when learning is asymmetric between incumbent and outside firms. I develop an asymmetric employer learning model in which endogenous job mobility is both a direct result of intensified adverse selection and a signal used by outside employers to update their expectations about workers' productive ability. I derive, from the model, empirical implications regarding the relationship between wage rates, ability, schooling and overall measures of job separations that contrasts the public learning models and the two-period mover-stayer models. Testing the model with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY-79), I find strong evidence supporting the three-period asymmetric employer learning model. The second chapter concerns economics of fertility and investigates to what extent the observed correlation between adolescent fertility and poor maternal educational attainment is causal. Semi-parametric kernel matching estimator is applied to estimate the effects of teenage childbearing on schooling outcomes. The matching method estimates the conditional moments without imposing any functional form restrictions and attends directly to the common support condition. Using data from the NLSY-79, kernel matching estimates suggest that half of the cross-sectional educational gaps remains after controlling for individual and family covariates. The difference between matching estimates and regression-based estimates implies that part of the conditional difference in parametric models is due to the functional assumption. The robustness check following Altonji, Elder, and Taber (2005) reveals that a substantial amount of correlation is required within a parametric framework to make the negative effect of teen motherhood on educational attainment go away. Further evidence obtained by simulation-based nonparametric sensitivity analysis suggests that the matching estimates are quite robust with regard to a wide range of specifications of the simulated unobservables.
	Bibliography Citation Zhang, Ye. Essays in Labor Economics. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Maryland - College Park, 2007. DAI-A 68/07, Jan 2008..

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