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  3. How do we measure the economic return to higher education? Typically it is calculated as the difference between average wages of

How do we measure the economic return to higher education? Typically it is calculated as the difference between average wages of

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问题     How do we measure the economic return to higher education? Typically it is calculated as the difference between average wages of college graduates and those who have not graduated from college. In 1997, for example, college graduates earned an average of $40,508 versus just $23,970 for non-college graduates. Based on these income levels, the economic return to a college education is approximately 69 percent, the difference between the two income levels. But this simple calculation ignores the fact that college graduates tend to come from higher socioeconomic levels, are more highly motivated, and probably have higher IQs than non graduations. Although these factors influence incomes, they are not the result of college attendance. Therefore the result of the study is an overstatement of the returns to higher education.
More sophisticated analyses adjust for these extraneous influences. For instance economists Orley Ashenfelter and Alan Krueger, estimate that each year of post-high school education results in a wage premium of between 15 and 16 percent. Their study is particularly relevant because they examined the earnings differences for identical twins with different education levels, allowing them to control for genetic and socioeconomic factors. Other research puts the wage premium for college graduates at nearly 50 percent.
    Unfortunately, you can’t spend a college wage premium. Income levels for the average college graduate have stagnated. After adjusting for inflation, the average income of college graduates holding full-time jobs rose by only 4.4 percent between 1979 and 1997, or at a minuscule annual rate of 0.2 percent. At the same time, workers with only high-school degrees saw their real income plummet by 15 percent. Bottom line: the much-ballyhooed college wage "premium" is due primarily to the fall in inflation-adjusted salaries of workers who haven’t been to college.
    In fact, if you don’t go on to graduate school or are not among the top graduates at one of the nation’s elite colleges, chances are your sky-high tuition is buying you no economic advantage whatsoever. In recent decades the flood of graduates has been so great that an increasing proportion have found themselves, within a few years, working as sales clerks, cab drivers, and in other jobs that do not, require a college degree.
    In 1995, approximately 40 percent of people with some college education—and 10 percent of those with a college degree—worked at jobs requiring only high-school skills. That’s up from 30 percent and 6 percent, respectively, in 1971.
选项 A、it doesn’t take into account the changing economic situations
B、it involves small samples
C、it failed to incorporate some aspects which themselves might have added to the earnings of college graduates
D、it does not specify whether non-college graduates have high-school degrees
答案C
解析
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