Is College Signaling or Human Capital Appreciation
sciencedirect.com
sciencedirect.com
I started tech when I was 18 and left tech at 23 to get a degree in Psychology. On the one hand, I came back to tech and never did Psychology, and am pretty sure my degree in Psych never directly impacted my career, but it did probably open up doors to management for me as my communication skills increased in ways it probably wouldn't have if I had stayed in Tech.
In fact this is what we really want to measure isn't it? Not are you ready for your first job out of college, but did you gain skill that make you a better all around worker.
Generally, other research has found that the college wage premium grows with age (i.e. a 50 year old with college vs a 50 year old without college degree makes even more in relative term). Thus, if the initial wage premium is driven by the coursework/upskilling due to classes, then we could see the negative impact of less coursework be even stronger in the future.
<- In fact this is what we really want to measure isn't it? Not are you ready for your first job out of college, but did you gain skill that make you a better all around worker.
I think that is what the result may be showing. Even if coursework might not have direct applications, it trains/teaches you in other ways that are applicable to many other scenarios.
After reducing the required coursework at a university, wages of graduates fell by approximately 15%. Here is the link to the write-up of this article - https://www.nominalnews.com/p/higher-education-is-it-worth-i...