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THE ECONOMIC RETURNS TO AN MBA *
Author(s) -
Arcidiacono Peter,
Cooley Jane,
Hussey Andrew
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.658
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1468-2354
pISSN - 0020-6598
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2354.2008.00500.x
Subject(s) - productivity , economics , control (management) , econometrics , work (physics) , demographic economics , labour economics , management , engineering , economic growth , mechanical engineering
Because MBA programs require work experience before admittance, prior wages can be exploited to disentangle the return to the degree from unobserved productivity. We find that controlling for individual fixed effects generally reduces the estimated returns to an MBA, particularly for those in top programs. However, for full‐time MBA students attending schools outside of the top‐25 the estimated returns are higher when we control for individual fixed effects. We show that there is some evidence that those who take the GMAT but do not obtain an MBA are stronger in dimensions such as workplace skills that are not easily measured.