Tight Labor Markets and the Demand for Education

Evidence from the Coal Boom and Bust

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3433486
AutoresDan A Black, Terra Mckinnish (0000-0003-3711-2543), Terra G Mckinnish, Seth G Sanders, Seth Sanders (0000-0001-6810-3979)
Ano2005
Volume59
Fascículo1
Páginas3-16
Data de publicação2005-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoIndustrial and Labor Relations Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0019-7939 • E-ISSN: 2162-271X
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/001979390505900101
OpenAlexW2925173732
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas32
Referências citadas9

Human capital theory predicts that individuals acquire less schooling when the returns to schooling are small. To test this theory, the authors study the effect of the Appalachian coal boom on high school enrollments. During the 1970s, a boom in the coal industry increased the earnings of high school dropouts relative to those of graduates. During the 1980s, the boom subsided and the earnings of dropouts declined relative to those of graduates. The authors find that high school enrollment rates in Kentucky and Pennsylvania declined considerably in the 1970s and increased in the 1980s in coal-producing counties relative to counties without coal. The estimates indicate that a long-term 10% increase in the earnings of low-skilled workers could decrease high school enrollment rates by as much as 5-7%-a finding with implications for policies aimed at improving low-skilled workers' employment and earnings, such as wage subsidies and minimum wage increases

Baby boom · Boom · Bust · Coal · Demographic economics · Earnings · Economic growth · Economics · Human capital · Labour economics · Population · Sociology · Subsidy · Wage · Demography · Engineering · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies