The Value of U.S. College Education in Global Labor Markets: Experimental Evidence from China

Author(s):  
Mingyu Chen
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Lyons

Coworkers are increasingly diverse in their nationality and skill sets. This paper studies the effect of diversity on how workers are organized using data from a field experiment conducted in an environment where diversity is pervasive. Findings show that team organization improves outcomes when workers are from the same country. The opposite is true when workers are nationally diverse. These results are more pronounced for teams of workers with specialized skills. Further investigation of the data suggests that nationally diverse teams have difficulty communicating. (JEL D83, F23, F66, J24, M16, M54)


Author(s):  
Markus C. Arnold ◽  
Robert A. Grasser

Using an experiment, we investigate whether job candidates' noncontractible effort promises increase their actual effort in the work relationship when the labor market is competitive. Due to promise-keeping preferences, individuals tend to keep promises even if doing so is costly. However, when promises can be made strategically to influence hiring decisions, it is unclear whether workers are less likely to keep their promises. We develop theory to predict that making effort promises matters even more when labor markets are competitive. We find workers promise higher effort levels when competing for a job than when they do not, but do not keep promises to a lesser extent although the costs of promise-keeping increase with the promise size, thereby increasing the total effort provided. The results enhance our understanding of the effects of worker-employer communication during hiring, particularly in a competitive setting in which such communication is most likely to occur.


Author(s):  
Robert B. Archibald

Demographic trends and changes in the perceived value of a degree both can have significant effects on the demand for higher education. Demographic changes in the United States are unlikely to reduce the demand for places in college overall, but falling high school enrollment in the Northeast and Midwest will pressure financially weaker schools in those regions. On average, the payoff to a college degree has grown substantially. The chapter shows that the return to marginal students may also be quite high. Lastly, the evidence from labor markets indicates that a college education is not simply correlated with higher income. It helps cause higher income.


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