Human Capital Attainment, University Quality, and Entry-Level Wages for College Transfer Students

Abstract

This paper examines the returns to institutional quality for college transfer students and asks whether the additional information provided by such students provides insight into the role of human capital accumulation in determining a college graduate's entry-level earnings. The quality of university from which a transfer student graduates has a positive effect on his or her future earnings. However, the quality of university initially attended has an insignificant negative effect. Such evidence suggests that a student's entry-level earnings depend only on graduation quality and not on the quality of education received throughout college and are thus more consistent with the screening theory ("sheepskin effects") than with human capital theory.

JEL Classification: I20, J24