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Benefits of Starting College in Bad Economic Times

18 October, 2021

Alena Bičáková, Matias Cortes (York University), and Jacopo Mazza (University of Essex) analyzed how students who enroll in a university in the UK and the US during a recession end up performing at the labor market. The authors recently wrote about their paper for The LSE blog.

The authors demonstrate that graduates who start college during bad economic times earn higher average wages than those who start during good times. The results of the study suggest that reducing educational resources during bad economic times is counterproductive. During recessions, governments should provide additional resources to support an increase in enrolment and take advantage of students' motivation.

The paper entitled "Caught in the Cycle: Economic Conditions at Enrolment and Labor Market Outcomes of College Graduates" was published by the Economic Journal.