Table 1.

Control Variables and Instruments Used in the Analysis

Control Variables	Measurement Equations	Choice	Outcomes
Race	x	x	x
Broken Home	x	x	x
Number of Siblings	x	x	x
Parents’ Education	x	x	x
Family Income (1979)	x	x	x
Region of Residencea	x	x	x
Urban Statusa	x	x	x
Ageb	x	x	x
Local Unemploymentc			x
Local Long-Run Unemployment		x
Instruments (Exclusion Restrictions)
Local Unemployment at Age 17d		x
Local Unemployment at Age 22e		x
College Present in County 1977f		x
Local College Tuition at Age 17g		x
Local College Tuition at Age 22h		x

Notes:

^aRegion and urban dummies are specific to the age that the measurement, educational choice, or outcome occurred.

^bAge in 1979 is included as a cohort control. We also included individual cohort dummies which did not change the results.

^cFor economic outcomes, local unemployment at the time the outcome is measured.

^dThis is an instrument for choices at nodes 0 and 1. It represents opportunity costs at the time schooling decisions are made.

^eThis is an instrument for the choice at node 2.

^fPresence of a four-year college in the county in 1977 is constructed from Kling (2001) and enters the choice to enroll and the choice to graduate from college.

^gLocal college tuition at age 17 only enters the college enrollment graduation decisions.

^hLocal college tuition at age 22 only enters the college completion equation. The measurement system includes the arithmetic reasoning, coding speed, paragraph comprehension, word knowledge, mathematical knowledge, and numerical operations sub-tests of the ASVAB, 9th grade GPA in math, English, science, and social studies, and early risky and reckless behavior. We assume ASVAB only loads on the cognitive factor. See Web Appendix Section A.2 for details.