The Labor Market Value of Community College Bachelor’s Degrees: Initial Evidence from a Resume Audit Study in Early Childhood Education

The author order was determined using the American Economic Association’s (AEA) randomized author order tool (confirmation code: 97bxnitDoKnK). The study was pre-registered in the AEA RCT Registry (AEARCTR-0016106). We are grateful for financial support from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) North America, the Texas A&M Bush School Seed Grant, and the Strada Foundation. We are also thankful for research management support from Denielle Amparado, Noreen Giga, Daneila Gómez Treviño and Amanda Lee of J-PAL North America. This work would not have been possible without the excellent research assistance of Annalee Debenport, Sam Ederington, Naveen Hari, Kara Jones, Luke Koulouris, Miranda Lambert, Aadya Mishra, Nina Riccardi, Addie Taylor, and Austyn West. We also thank Brian Asquith, Elizabeth Bell, Timothy J. Bartik, Jessica Brown, Heather Bryant, Yuci Chen, Rajeev Darolia, Navi Dhaliwal, Jeff Denning, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Chloe Gibbs, Brad J. Hershbein, Peter Hinrichs, Kirabo Jackson, David Mahan, Michelle Miller-Adams, Gabrielle Pepin, Andrew Simon, Aaron Sojourner, Lori Taylor, and conference and seminar participants at the MidSouth Education Policy Workshop, the Opportunity for Inclusive Growth Early Career Researcher Day, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the Association for Education Finance and Policy, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Northwestern University, and Clemson University for their helpful comments and suggestions. Institutional support was provided by Miami University, University of Texas at Dallas, Northwestern University, University of South Carolina, Stanford University, and Texas A&M University. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• randomized controlled trials registry entry