The benefits of a college diploma are many, including higher pay, lower unemployment, maybe even better health. Yet many high school graduates still do not pursue a college degree. This article examines several key reasons why more people aren’t making this investment in themselves.

(29 Reviews)

Earnings Growth Over a Lifetime: Not What It Used To Be

By Yu-Chien Kong and B. Ravikumar

A typical worker's earnings grow over his lifetime. The generation of workers born in the 1910s experienced more growth than the generation born in the 1940s.

(0 Reviews)

Resources

(0 Reviews)

Replicating the Harlem Children's Zone: How a Charter School Tax Credit Could Bring Human Capital Investment to Scale

By Ian Galloway

Every year, 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States. A clear moral and policy failure, this ongoing crisis is also an economic disaster.

(49 Reviews)

Which Came First—Better Education or Better Health?

By Rubén Hernández-Murillo and Christopher J. Martinek

Better-educated people appear to be in better health than less-educated people. But does more education cause better health, or are there other factors at play – such as income and access to information?

(15 Reviews)

Resources

(0 Reviews)

Teacher Workshops Chip Away at Economic Illiteracy

By William Bosshardt Paul Grimes, and Mary Suiter,

Workshops put on for teachers by the Atlanta and St. Louis Feds are having the desired results, a recent assessment shows. Teachers are learning about the economy and personal finance, and they are passing this information on to a student body that desperately needs it.

(2 Reviews)

The Return to Education Isn't Calculated Easily

By Natalia A. Kolesnikova

Most studies estimate that the return to each year of education is about 10 percent. But calculating the financial gain is not a cut-and-dried process. Even more difficult is calculating the nonmonetary return.

(28 Reviews)

A Winning Combination? Economic Theory Meets Sports

By Kristie M. Engemann and Michael T. Owyang

Satisfying a need to get out in the field, some economists are studying sports. Their topics have included racism in the NBA, coaches’ maximization of their chances of winning, and the direction that soccer players and goalies should move during penalty kicks.

(4 Reviews)

Community Colleges: Not So Junior Anymore

By Natalia A. Kolesnikova and Luke Shimek

Originally, their goal was to prepare students to transfer to a four-year college. Today, they also offer work force training, certification in professions, adult continuing education-and even bachelor's degrees.

(3 Reviews)

U.S. Income Inequality: It's Not So Bad

By Thomas A. Garrett

Census data show that the income of the rich is growing faster than the income of the poor. But such common measures exaggerate the degree of income inequality. In addition, income inequality is the result of-and not a detriment to-a well-functioning economy.

(6 Reviews)

Bird Flu Pandemic: History Warns of Economic Pain, Though Some Might Gain

By Thomas A. Garrett

If such a pandemic were to be anything like the Spanish Flu of the early 20th century, expect not only tens of millions of deaths worldwide but also a blow to the world economy in the hundreds of billions of dollars. See “Headlines from 1918,” too.

(0 Reviews)

Adding Up the Economic Effects of Immigration

By Rubén Hernández-Murillo

The influx of low-skilled and undocumented workers raises concerns about the impact on low-skilled U.S.-born workers and on the tax burden for all those born in the United States.

(3 Reviews)

What's in a Name? Reconciling Conflicting Evidence on Ethnic Names

By Kristie M. Engemann and Michael T. Owyang

One study shows that Kenya and Hakim might have more trouble getting their résumés noticed than Allison and Brad do. But another study indicates that distinctively African-American names don’t lead to worse economic outcomes in adulthood.

(0 Reviews)

So Much for That Merit Raise: The Link between Wages and Appearance

By Kristie M. Engemann and Michael T. Owyang

If you think that your career advancement is based solely on your productivity, think again. As hard as it may be for Horatio Alger fans to accept, workers who are taller, thinner or better looking than the rest of us can have an edge.

(2 Reviews)

Wage Gap Widens, Especially in Cities

By Christopher H. Wheeler

Thirty years ago, the "haves" in the St. Louis Fed's District earned 3.7 times what the "have nots" earned. Today, the "haves" make 5.2 times as much. Education is just one of the reasons behind the widening divide.

(0 Reviews)

Marriage, Motherhood and Money: How Do Women’s Life Decisions Influence Their Wages?

By Abbigail J. Chiodo and Michael T. Owyang

Becoming a wife. Becoming a mother. Read how these critical life decisions affect the salary women take home.

(2 Reviews)

For Love or Money: Why Married Men Make More

By Abbigail J. Chiodo and Michael T. Owyang

Whether it's because of employer bias or their own hard work, men who've married are paid more than those who've never said "I do."

(3 Reviews)

To Bear or Not to Bear

By Paige M. Skiba and Howard J. Wall

Weighing the costs vs. the benefits of having children may seem like a cold-blooded exercise. Yet such an analysis can help us understand not only such private decisions but public policies, too.

(1 Reviews)

The Gender Wage Gap And Wage Discrimination: Illusion or Reality?

By Howard J. Wall

The wage gap between men and women is not as large as you think, nor is it entirely due to discrimination.

(8 Reviews)

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