Natives, the foreign-born and high school equivalents: new evidence on the returns to the GED

Melissa A. Clark, David A. Jaeger*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    We explore the labor market returns to the General Education Development (GED) exam for US natives and the foreign-born. We find that foreign-born men with a GED who received all of their formal schooling abroad earn significantly more than either foreign-schooled high school dropouts or graduates. In contrast, among US natives, GED recipients earn less than high school graduates but significantly more than dropouts. The returns for natives become larger over the life cycle and are not due to cohort effects. Our findings indicate that the GED may be more valuable in the labor market than some previous research suggests.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)769-793
    Number of pages25
    JournalJournal of Population Economics
    Volume19
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2006

    Keywords

    • GED
    • immigration
    • sheepskin effects
    • EDUCATION QUESTIONS
    • UNITED-STATES
    • BENEFITS
    • EARNINGS
    • MATTER
    • WOMEN

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