Making Cents: The Impact of for-Profit College Graduation on Labor Market and Occupational Outcomes

David Kirui , University of Pennsylvania

Using nationally representative survey data, I examine the labor market and occupational outcomes of graduates of for-profit colleges. I ask four related questions. 1.How do students’ race, ethnicity, and/or gender influence or interact with the relationship between institutional sector and labor market outcomes, and specifically earnings? 2. What is the role that student debt plays in the relationship between institutional sector and labor market outcomes? What is the relationship between institutional sector and discretionary/disposable income (operationalized as debt-to-income ratio)? 3.What is the impact of institutional sector on occupational prestige and what is the relationship between institutional sector and heterogeneity in occupational outcomes? 4.What is the impact of institutional sector on length/duration of unemployment and degree holders’ level of satisfaction with the amount of debt incurred to earn their degrees?

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 Presented in Session 169. Flash Session: New Directions in Economy, Labor Force, Education, and Inequality