Return to College Education Revisited: Is Relevance Relevant?

This study examines whether the size of the college earnings premium varies depending on the quality of the match between an individual’s degree field and his/her occupation. The study uses the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to obtain a new measure of the quality of occupational match for a sample of 2268 young adults with post-secondary degrees from the restricted use High School and Beyond (1980/92) data. The study finds that people whose occupations better match their degree fields earn significantly higher returns to post-secondary schooling. This result is robust to controlling for an extensive set of pre-existing differences among individuals, and to accounting for differences in earnings across post-secondary degree fields

Learning from Teen Childbearing Experiences of Close Friends: Evidence Using Miscarriages as a Natural Experiment

We examine peer effects in teen childbearing among close friends, using miscarriages as a natural experiment. We use 775 women from the core sample of Add Health who had a friend with a teen pregnancy. We find a sizable negative treatment effect – a close friend\u27s teen birth is associated with a 6 percentage point reduction in the likelihood of own teen pregnancy and childbearing. There is evidence that this effect operates through a learning mechanism by changing beliefs regarding early childbearing. Effects of teen pregnancy prevention policies may be partially offset by reductions in the opportunities for social learning

Rankings Matter: Nurse Graduates from Higher-ranked Institutions Have Higher Productivity

Background Increasing demand for baccalaureate-prepared nurses has led to rapid growth in the number of baccalaureate-granting programs, and to concerns about educational quality and potential effects on productivity of the graduating nursing workforce. We examined the association of individual productivity of a baccalaureate-prepared nurse with the ranking of the degree-granting institution. Methods For a sample of 691 nurses from general medical-surgical units at a large magnet urban hospital between 6/1/2011–12/31/2011, we conducted multivariate regression analysis of nurse productivity on the ranking of the degree-granting institution, adjusted for age, hospital tenure, gender, and unit-specific effects. Nurse productivity was coded as “top”/“average”/“bottom” based on a computation of individual nurse value-added to patient outcomes. Ranking of the baccalaureate-granting institution was derived from the US News and World Report Best Colleges Rankings’ categorization of the nurse’s institution as the “first tier” or the “second tier”, with diploma or associate degree as the reference category. Results Relative to diploma or associate degree nurses, nurses who had attended first-tier universities had three-times the odds of being in the top productivity category (OR = 3.18, p \u3c 0.001), while second-tier education had a non-significant association with productivity (OR = 1.73, p = 0.11). Being in the bottom productivity category was not associated with having a baccalaureate degree or the quality tier. Conclusions The productivity boost from a nursing baccalaureate degree depends on the quality of the educational institution. Recognizing differences in educational outcomes, initiatives to build a baccalaureate-educated nursing workforce should be accompanied by improved access to high-quality educational institutions

Environmental Influences on Young Adult Weight Gain: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Objectives: This study investigated the importance of environmental influences in explaining weight gain and related behaviors among freshman college students. Methods: We exploited a natural experiment that takes place on most college campuses in the United States - randomized dormitory assignments. We estimated the effects of living in dormitories with varying physical environment characteristics on weight gain and related behaviors (daily number of meals and snacks, weekly frequency of exercise) among randomly assigned freshman students. Results: We found strong evidence linking weight and related behaviors to individual dormitories, as well as to specific characteristics of the dormitories. On average, students assigned to dormitories with on-site dining halls gained more weight and exhibited more behaviors consistent with weight gain during the freshman year as compared with students not assigned to such dormitories. Females in such dormitories weighed .85 kg (p = .03) more and exercised 1.43 (p \u3c .01) times fewer; males consumed .22 (p = .02) more meals and .38 (p = .01) more snacks. For female students, closer proximity of the dormitory to a campus gym led to more frequent exercise (.54, p = .03), whereas living closer to central campus reduced exercise (-.97, p = .01). Conclusions: Using a natural experiment to deal with the potential endogeneity of the living environment, this study found that the physical environment affects both students’ weight changes and weight-related behaviors

What Can We Learn From the Existing Evidence of the Business Case for Investments in Nursing Care: Importance of Content, Context, and Policy Environment

Decisions of health care institutions to invest in nursing care are often guided by mixed and conflicting evidence of effects of the investments on organizational function and sustainability. This paper uses new evidence generated through Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI)-funded research and published in peer-reviewed journals, to illustrate where the business case for nursing investments stands and to discuss factors that may limit the existing evidence and its transferability into clinical practice. We conclude that there are 3 limiting factors: (1) the existing business case for nursing investments is likely understated due to the inability of most studies to capture spillover and long-run dynamic effects, thus causing organizations to forfeit potentially viable nursing investments that may improve long-term financial stability; (2) studies rarely devote sufficient attention to describing the content and the organization-specific contextual factors, thus limiting generalizability; and (3) fragmentation of the current health care delivery and payment systems often leads to the financial benefits of investments in nursing care accruing outside of the organization incurring the costs, thus making potentially quality-improving and cost-saving interventions financially unattractive from the organization\u27s perspective. The payment reform, with its emphasis on high-quality affordable patient-centered care, is likely to strengthen the business case for investments in nursing care. Methodologically rigorous approaches that focus on broader societal implications of investments in nursing care, combined with a thorough understanding of potential barriers and facilitators of nursing change, should be an integral part of future research and policy efforts

Obesogenic Environmental Influences on Young Adults: Evidence From Randomized Dormitory Assignment

This study utilizes a natural experiment—conditionally random dormitory assignments of first-year US college students—to investigate the influence of obesogenic environmental factors in explaining changes in weight and exercise behavior during the 2009–2010 academic year. The design addresses potential selection biases resulting from the likelihood that individuals sort into built environments that match their preferences for exercise and healthy eating. We find some evidence that the food environment, specifically access to campus dining, significantly affected the weight of female students in our study. Females assigned to dormitories where the nearest campus dining hall was closed on the weekends gained about 1 lb less over the course of the year than females assigned to dormitories near dining halls that were open 7 days a week. We also find some evidence that female who lived in close proximity to a grocery store gained less weight over the course of the year. Finally, females who lived closer to campus gym reported more frequent exercise over the course of the year. We do not find significant effects of the built environment on weight changes of males in our sample, but we are cautious to draw strong conclusions from this because the male weight change in our sample was quite small