Premium
Do higher college graduation rates increase local education levels?
Author(s) -
Winters John V.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
papers in regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1435-5957
pISSN - 1056-8190
DOI - 10.1111/pirs.12258
Subject(s) - graduation (instrument) , psychology , political science , demographic economics , economics , mathematics , geometry
College graduates are important for regional economies but also quite geographically mobile. This paper examines the relationship between college graduation rates among persons from a state (relative production) and the later share of college graduates for persons residing in the state (relative stock) using decennial census and American Community Survey microdata. The descriptive relationship has increased over time and is nearly proportional in recent years. Instrumental variables (IV) methods are used to estimate causal effects. The preferred IV results yield an average point estimate for the production‐stock relationship of 0.52, but the effect likely decreases with age.