Using a sample of youth who graduated from high school in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this paper examines the impact of high school math curriculum on the decision to go to college. Results that control for unobserved differences between students and their families suggest that a more rigorous high school math curriculum is associated with a…

On the basis of those respondents in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) who change jobs with an intervening period of education reinvestment, the conventional assumption of linearity of log wages in years of schooling is strongly rejected: a typical reinvestment for the 1980 through 1993 period is associated with a rise of about 3.5…

The theory on the demand for health suggests that schooling causes health because schooling increases the efficiency of health production. Alternatively, the allocative efficiency hypothesis argues that schooling alters the input mix chosen to produce health. This suggests that the more educated have more knowledge about the health production…

Learning disabled youth in the Child and Young Adult samples of the NLSY79 are "more" likely to graduate from high school than peers with the same measured cognitive ability, a difference that cannot be explained by differences in noncognitive skills, families, or school resources. Instead, I find that learning disabled students graduate…

There is widespread belief that exposure to television has harmful effects on children's cognitive development. Most studies that point to a negative correlation between hours of television watching and cognitive outcomes, fail to establish causality. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) we study young children between 5 and 10…

In this paper, we investigate the association between weight and children's educational achievement, as measured by scores on Peabody Individual Achievement Tests in math and reading, and grade attainment. Data for the study came from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), which contains a large, national sample of…

In an attempt to increase applications from low-income students, some selective 4-year colleges are developing programs to target and attract low-income students. However, relatively little research has looked at factors important in the college application process, and in particular, how these factors differ for low-income students. This paper…

Critics of Head Start contend that many programs spend too much money on programs extraneous to children. On the other hand, Head Start advocates argue that the families of severely disadvantaged children need a broad range of services. Given the available evidence, it has been impossible to assess the validity of these claims. In this study, we…

The 1994 federal School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) provided more than $1.5 billion over 5 years to support increased career preparation activities in the country's public schools. A new longitudinal data source with rich information on school-to-career (STC) programs--the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97)--provides…

This study examines whether the number of hours of television watched by young adults is associated with performance on standardized exams and whether any such relationship is causal. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the High School and Beyond survey and the National Education Longitudinal Study all indicate a negative…

This study examines the determinants of US students' choice of alternative programs of study in high school. An explicit theoretical framework grounded in optimizing behavior is derived. The empirical work is based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. The set of variables include student and family characteristics, peer behavior, and…

Adult students (25 years old and over) currently constitute 43% of all college students. This paper investigates the importance of college timing in determining earnings. Findings show that those who complete college at a later age receive a significantly smaller initial earning increase than those who acquire their education earlier in life.…

Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data, this study finds that education rates of return vary across racial/ethnic groups because of differing human capital investments made by families in each group. School quality also matters. Nearly the entire white/black earnings gap would disappear if black children had school and home…

Applies logit models to study youth's dropout behavior and decisions whether to return to school. Most results from the logistic regression for dropping out are consistent with other findings; however, being black is less associated with dropping out. A dropout's Armed Forces Qualification Test score, age, and out-of-school duration are…

Constructs a model using an idiosyncratic expected-earnings variable to explain the probability that a student will choose a specific major among four choices of concentrations. Finds that the expected-earnings variable is essential in the choice of a college major; however, there are significant differences in the impact of expected earnings by…