The upward trend in women’s college-going: the role of teenagers’ anticipated future labour force attachment.

This article focuses on the role of teenagers’ anticipated labour force participation in explaining the upward trend in U.S. women’s college-going. A simple conceptual model implies that individuals with more anticipated lifetime hours of work are more likely to invest in college education. My analysis using data from three National Longitudinal Surveys supports the theoretical implication. This finding, combined with the trend towards higher work expectations of young women across birth cohorts, may account in part for the upward trends in women’s college attendance and completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]