The Department of Economics Applied Microeconomics Seminar Series presents

"The Determinants of Mismatch between Students and Colleges"
with Jeff Smith, Professor of Economics, University of Michigan

Tuesday, May 7, 2013
3:30-5:00 p.m.
Social Science Plaza B, Room 3266 (Econ Library)

Smith uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort to examine college choices. Focus in on the determinants of choosing a college at which the student is mismatched in the sense of relatively over- or under-qualified compared to other students at the same college. He finds that both over-qualification and under-qualification are empirically important in these data. In addition, he finds that mismatch depends primarily on student choices regarding where to apply and enroll and not on college choices about whom to admit conditional on application. Most of the potential determinants he examines have a monotonic effect on college quality and so both increase the probability of under-qualification and decrease the probability of over-qualification or the reverse. In a broad sense, students with more information about college, whether from parents, neighbors or their high school peers, tend to attend higher quality colleges. An important exception to such monotonic effects is the presence of a well-matched public college within 50 miles, which reduces both under-qualification and over-qualification.

For further information, please contact Gloria Simpson, simpsong@uci.edu or 949-824-5788.