The Impact of School Quality on Labor Market Outcomes in Pennsylvania Cities

O'Brien, Declan

The Impact of School Quality on Labor Market Outcomes in Pennsylvania Cities

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10456/57721

Author(s)

O'Brien, Declan

Date Issued

April 4, 2024

Abstract

The goal of this study is to determine whether school quality affects those going into the workforce out of high school, specifically in the largest cities in Pennsylvania. To test this, employment status and total personal income are used as the measures of labor market outcomes. The measures for school quality are cohort graduation rate, dropout rate, average daily attendance, SAT scores, and student-weighted funding. The data set used comes from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and is combined with school quality variables taken from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Through looking at previous research, there is a lack of knowledge of what qualities of schools affect labor market outcomes, as well as a lack of research on Pennsylvania’s labor market as a whole. Through this research, I determined there are a few important factors of school quality that impact earnings and employment. It was also found that the industry an individual chooses to go into after high school has a large effect on these outcomes.

Major

Economics

Honors

Business and Economics, 2024

First Reader(s)

Bianco, Timothy P.