Reconsidering our Graduation Efforts: The Economic Impact of Certificates, Associate’s, and Bachelor’s Degrees

ABSTRACT

United States’ education policy efforts have focused on increasing college graduation rates, with an emphasis on bachelor’s degrees, with the expectation of greater economic prosperity. Most community college and university degrees differ in time to completion and should not be viewed as having the same short-term, medium-term, and long-term impact on US economic growth. Utilizing the Uzawa–Lucas endogenous growth theory through an econometric model, our research analyzes the impact of total higher education degrees; community college and university graduates; and certificate, associate, and bachelor’s degrees on US economic growth. Our findings demonstrate the significant impact of community colleges and community college degrees in the short and medium term on US economic growth compared to university and bachelor’s degrees. We conclude with an analysis of the findings and suggestions for future research.

Notes

¹ Economic impact studies should be mentioned as complex institution studies on economic effect on the local economy (financial and jobs) that emphasize persuasion that promotes dispersion in measurement and questionable accuracy (Siegfried, Sanderson, & McHenry, 2007; Pillay, 2011).

² This assumes the rise in individual income and state incomes happens due to increased productivity and new income earned through increased productivity is returned to workers as higher income as there is no significant evidence of between higher wages states and tax levels (Berger & Fisher, 2013).