TY  - JOUR
AU  - Willis,Robert J.
AU  - Rosen,Sherwin
TI  - Education and Self-Selection
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 249
PY  - 1980
Y2  - April 1980
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0249
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0249.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert J. Willis
3254 ISR
University of Michigan
P. O. Box 1248
426 Thompson Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Tel: 734/936-0314
E-Mail: rjwillis@isr.umich.edu

Sherwin Rosen
Department of Economics University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL   60637
Tel: 312-702-8166
AB  - A structural model of the demand for college attendance is derived from the theory of comparative advantage and recent statistical models of self-selection and unobserved components. Estimates from NBER-Thorndike data strongly support the theory. First, expected lifetime earnings gains influence the decision to attend college. Second, those who did not attend college would have earned less than measurably similar people who did attend, while those who attended college would have earned less as high school graduates than measurably similar people who stopped after high school. Positive selection in both groups implies no "ability bias in these data.
ER  -