Hi everyone!

For our final meeting of the Fall semester, this week we welcome David Deming, a Professor of Economics and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He will be presenting work entitled The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study. An abstract is included below and can be found on the website (here).

We will meet in CGIS Knafel Room 354 from 12-1:30 pm. As usual, lunch will be provided. See you all there!

-- Dana Higgins

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

Abstract: We study employers’ perceptions of postsecondary degrees using a field experiment. We randomly assign the sector and selectivity of institution to fictitious resumes and send them to real vacancy postings on a large online job board. According to our results, a bachelor’s degree in business from a for-profit “online” institution is 22 percent less likely to receive a callback than a similar degree from a non-selective public institution. Degrees from selective public institutions are relatively more likely to receive callbacks from employers posting higher-salaried jobs, suggesting that employers value college quality and the likelihood of a successful match when contacting applicants.