[ARI Working Paper Series No. 30]

Academic Transfer, Self-Selection, and the Causal Effects

Jin-tae Hwang and Sung-min Kim*

Abstract

We investigate the type of self-selection arising in college transfer in Korea, and then estimate the returns to additional college education gained through transfers from two-year community colleges to four-year colleges. In this paper, we show that academic transfer is consistent with a positive selection hypothesis, in the sense that students with characteristics correlated positively to productivity are more likely to transfer to four-year colleges from community colleges. These empirical results also meet an underlying dispersion condition. In addition, we find that the transferred would make a statistically significant return to additional college education.

Keywords: College Transfer, Propensity Score Matching, Self-Selection

JEL Classification Numbers: A23, I29, J39

* Research Professor, Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University, 145, Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, Korea, 136-701, Tel: +82-2-3290-5246, E-mail: java0215@gmail.com or sm0910@korea.ac.kr; Research fellow, Korea Insurance Research Institute, Seoul, Korea, E-mail: jt0813@kiri.or.kr