ABSTRACT Many undergraduates leave college without completing a degree or credential. Some researchers characterize this as a waste of the student’s time because (they assert) college short of a degree does not yield any advantage in the labor market. Using data for an entire cohort of students graduating high school in Texas in one year, we compare the employment and earnings years later of those who do not go beyond high school with those who enter college but do not complete a credential. Using techniques that address selection bias, we find that students with “some college” are considerably more likely to be employed fifteen years after high school graduation and tend to earn significantly more than their counterparts who do not go to college. These benefits are found across student subgroups, with low-income students, women, and students of color generally experiencing the greatest improvements in labor outcomes from college attendance. While college dropouts do not fare as well as college graduates, incomplete college nevertheless functions for many as a stepping-stone into a better labor market position.

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不完整学位的价值：大学未完成的劳动力市场利益的异质性

摘要 许多本科生在没有完成学位或证书的情况下就离开了大学。一些研究人员认为这是对学生时间的浪费，因为（他们断言）没有学位的大学在劳动力市场上不会产生任何优势。我们使用一年内从德克萨斯州高中毕业的整组学生的数据，比较了那些没有高中毕业的学生与那些进入大学但没有完成证书的学生的就业和收入。使用解决选择偏差的技术，我们发现“上过大学”的学生在高中毕业 15 年后就业的可能性要大得多，而且往往比没有上过大学的同龄人挣得多。这些好处存在于学生群体中，包括低收入学生、女性、和有色人种学生通常在上大学后的劳动成果方面取得了最大的进步。虽然大学辍学的情况不如大学毕业生，但对许多人来说，不完整的大学仍然是进入更好的劳动力市场地位的垫脚石。