The Labor Market Returns to 'First in Family' University Graduates
Anna Adamecz-Völgyi,
Morag Henderson () and
Nikki Shure
Additional contact information
Morag Henderson: UCL Institute of Education
No 13911, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Abstract:
We exploit linked survey-administrative data from England to examine how first in family (FiF) graduates (those whose parents do not have university degrees) fare on the labor market. We find that among graduate women, FiF graduates earn 8.3% less on average than graduate women whose parents have a university degree. For men, we find no such difference. A decomposition of the difference between FiF and non-FiF graduate women reveals that prior academic attainment, whether they attended an 'elite' institution, and whether they needed their degree for their job fully explains this gap. We also estimate returns to graduation for potential FiF and non-FiF young people. We find that although the wage returns to graduation are higher among FiF women compared to women who match their parents with a degree, the negative effects of coming from a lower educated family are so large that they counteract the high returns of graduation.
Keywords: labor market returns; entropy balancing; higher education; intergenerational educational mobility; socioeconomic gaps; gender economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 I26 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)
Published - published in: Journal of Population Economics, 2023, 36, 1395–1429
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Journal Article: The labor market returns to “first-in-family” university graduates (2023) 
Working Paper: The labor market returns to 'first in family' university graduates (2022) 
Working Paper: The labor market returns to ‘first in family’ university graduates (2021) 
Working Paper: The labor market returns to ‘first in family’ university graduates (2021) 
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