It is well known that on average, college graduates earn more than non-college graduates. The two dominant theories to explain this are the human capital and the signaling theories.

Here’s the most extreme form of the human capital theory:  students enter college as blank slates and the education they receive makes them more productive. This higher productivity leads to higher wages, so Continue Reading »

Last week, Capella University President Scott Kinney wrote a piece in Inside Higher Education encouraging the U.S. Education Department to make available data it collected initially for the now much-in-doubt gainful employment regulation that would allow universities to examine the earnings data of their graduates by degree area.  A few weeks before, the Washington Post ran a story on how VirgiContinue Reading »