The Labor Market Value of Community College Bachelor's Degrees. Initial Evidence from a Resume Audit Study in Early Childhood Education.

Autor/inn/en	Acton, Riley K.; Morales, Camila; Turner, Julia A.; Miller, Lois; Cortes, Kalena E.
Institution	National Bureau of Economic Research
Titel	The Labor Market Value of Community College Bachelor's Degrees. Initial Evidence from a Resume Audit Study in Early Childhood Education.
Quelle	Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research (2026) PDF als Volltext (1); PDF als Volltext (2) Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	NBER working paper series. w35404
Beigaben	Illustrationen
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monografie; Graue Literatur
DOI	10.3386/w35404
Schlagwörter	Bildungspolitik; Bildungsertrag; Bildungsabschluss; Hochschule; Arbeitspapier; USA
Abstract	Community colleges are more financially, academically, and geographically accessible than four-year institutions. Yet despite most community college students intending to earn a bachelor's degree, few successfully transfer and complete one. Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) programs have emerged as an alternative pathway, allowing community colleges to confer bachelor's degrees directly. However, little is known about how employers value these credentials in the labor market. To address this question, we conduct the first resume audit study of CCB degrees, submitting fictitious applications to real job vacancies while experimentally varying applicants' educational credentials, degree-granting institutions, and demographic signals. In this pilot study, we focus on the early childhood education (ECE) labor market, a rapidly growing CCB field characterized by labor shortages and increasing educational requirements. We find that employers view CCB degrees similarly to both traditional bachelor's and associate degrees, with statistically indistinguishable interview-request rates across degree types. A text analysis of employer callback messages reveals little evidence that employers communicate differently with CCB applicants, while a net-price simulation suggests that sticker-price comparisons substantially overstate the affordability advantage of CCB programs. Together, these findings provide new evidence on the labor market value and affordability of CCB degrees and inform an ongoing large-scale audit study across additional fields and labor markets.
Erfasst von	ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Kiel
Update	2026/4