Schooling as Human Capital or a Signal: Some Evidence
提出一种新方法区分教育的价值来自人力资本还是信号，通过同时纳入绝对教育年限和相对排名来估计收入方程，发现教育年限对收入有显著正效应，而排名效应不显著，支持人力资本解释。
A new way is proposed to distinguish between the human capital and the signaling theories of the value of education. If education is a signal, then the essence of the signal should be distilled in the position of an individual in the distribution of education for his cohort. Estimating earnings equations that include both absolute (years) and relative (percentile) measures of education provides a test of the two competing theories. Analyzing two separate panel data sources under a range of alternative specifications, we find that the years measure of schooling has a consistently significant positive effect on earnings, but that the rank measure rarely does. This evidence supports the conclusion that human capital rather than signaling is the predominant explanation of schooling's value.