The Labor of Division: Returns to Compulsory High School Math Coursework
研究发现，提高高中数学最低要求显著增加了黑人学生的数学课程完成量和未来收入，每多学一门数学课程回报率约10%，而白人学生不受影响，这有助于缩小种族经济差距。
Despite great focus on and public investment in STEM education, little causal evidence connects quantitative coursework to students’ economic outcomes. I show that state changes in minimum high school math requirements substantially increase black students’ completed math coursework and their later earnings. The marginal student’s return to an additional math course is 10%, roughly half the return to a year of high school, and is partly explained by a shift toward more cognitively skilled occupations. White students’ coursework and earnings are unaffected. Rigorous standards for quantitative coursework can close meaningful portions of racial gaps in economic outcomes.