TY - JOUR AU - Bound,John AU - Lovenheim,Michael F. AU - Turner,Sarah TI - Increasing Time to Baccalaureate Degree in the United States JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 15892 PY - 2010 Y2 - April 2010 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15892 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15892.pdf N1 - Author contact info: John Bound Department of Economics University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220 Tel: 734/998-7149 Fax: 734/998-7415 E-Mail: jbound@umich.edu Michael Lovenheim Department of Policy Analysis and Management Cornell University 135 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 Tel: 607/255-0705 Fax: 607/255-4071 E-Mail: mfl55@cornell.edu Sarah Turner Department of Economics University of Virginia 249 Ruffner Hall Charlottesville, VA 22903-2495 Tel: 434/924-7857 Fax: 434/924-1384 E-Mail: sturner@virginia.edu AB - Time to completion of the baccalaureate degree has increased markedly in the United States over the last three decades, even as the wage premium for college graduates has continued to rise. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 and the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, we show that the increase in time to degree is localized among those who begin their postsecondary education at public colleges outside the most selective universities. In addition, we find evidence that the increases in time to degree were more marked amongst low income students. We consider several potential explanations for these trends. First, we find no evidence that changes in the college preparedness or the demographic composition of degree recipients can account for the observed increases. Instead, our results suggest that declines in collegiate resources in the less-selective public sector increased time to degree. Furthermore, we present evidence of increased hours of employment among students, which is consistent with students working more to meet rising college costs and likely increases time to degree by crowding out time spent on academic pursuits. ER -