The employment decisions of female college students: Influences and outcomes.

摘要

The resumes of college graduates have been evolving in the past several decades. Unlike older students, many current students will enter the working world not only with a degree but also with a substantial amount of work experience. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this dissertation examines three questions for a sample of young women. First, what are the short run and long run effects of working in college on earnings? Second, how does employment during college effect the time to degree completion? And third, how does the presence of children in the home impact this decision to work?;Using Ordinary Least Squares earnings regressions, with controls for ability and attitude, the results show that women who work about 15 hours per week while in college are found to experience significantly higher wages five years after education completion than their counterparts. No such effect is found when income is measured two years after education completion. Women who were employed more than an average of five hours a week in college had a longer time to completion of their bachelor's degree, holding constant other factors.;A Tobit analysis of the determinants of hours worked indicates that the number of children have a positive but insignificant effect on hours worked. An increase in the number of children significantly lengthens the woman's time to degree completion, however, and decreases future earnings. The addition of attitude variables to the regressions has no significant effect.