Signaling Specific Skills and the Labor Market of College Graduates
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19317057 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matías Busso (0000-0001-5632-9129, Inter-American Development Bank [email protected]), Sebastián Montaño (Universidad de Los Andes [email protected]), Juan Muñoz-Morales (0000-0001-6891-1773, IESEG School of Management, Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9221- LEM-Lille Économie Management, F-59000 Lille, France [email protected]) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-46 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-27 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Review of Economics and Statistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-6535 • E-ISSN: 1530-9142 |
| Publisher | MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1162/rest.a.1635 |
| OpenAlex | W4415598670 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Using administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, we study the labor market effects of a government-sponsored award given to top-performing students on Colombia’s national college exit exam. The award signals field-specific skills, leading recipients to earn seven to ten percent more than comparable peers without the signal. The benefits are concentrated among graduates from lowerreputation institutions, who enter the market with weaker signals and gain access to better job matches and higher-paying firms. These returns persist for up to five years, driven by an upward shift in the intercept of the wage-experience profile of those with weaker signals
Discontinuity (linguistics) · Job market · Regression · Regression analysis · Regression discontinuity design · Higher Education and Employability
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2027 - 2027 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |