Observed and Adjusted Benefits from Education
Notes: The bars represent the coefficients from a regression of
the designated outcome on dummy variables for educational attainment, where the
omitted category is high school dropout. Regressions are run adding successive
controls for background and proxies for ability. Background controls include
race, age in 1979, region of residence in 1979, urban status in 1979, broken
home status, number of siblings, mother’s education, father’s
education, and family income in 1979. Proxies for ability are average score on
the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) tests and ninth grade GPA
in core subjects (language, math, science, and social science). See the
discussion surrounding Table 1 (below)
and Web Appendix A.2
for additional details. “Some College” includes anyone who
enrolled in college, but did not receive a four-year college degree. The white
bars additionally control for highest grade completed (HGC).
Source: NLSY79 data.