The Labor-Market Returns to Community College Degrees, Diplomas, and Certificates
利用肯塔基州行政数据，估计社区大学证书、文凭和副学士学位的劳动力市场回报，发现副学士和文凭对女性和男性有较高季度收入回报，且不同专业领域回报差异大。
This paper provides among the first rigorous estimates of the labor-market returns to community college certificates and diplomas, as well as estimating the returns to the more commonly-studied associate's degrees. Using administrative data from Kentucky, we estimate panel-data models that control for differences among students in pre-college earnings and educational aspirations. Associate's degrees and diplomas have quarterly earnings returns of nearly $2,400 for women and $1,500 for men, compared with much smaller returns for certificates. There is substantial heterogeneity in returns across fields of study. Degrees, diplomas, and - for women - certificates correspond with higher levels of employment.