Economics of Education Review 20 2001 151–163 www.elsevier.comlocateeconedurev
Transfer from two-year to four-year college: an analysis of gender differences
Brian J. Surette
Federal Reserve Board, 20th C Streets, NW, Mail Stop 153, Washington, DC 20551, USA Received 10 June 1998; received in revised form 15 January 1999; accepted 30 August 1999
Abstract
Nearly one-third of all students who attend a two-year college transfer to a four-year college by the time they turn 25. This paper demonstrates that women are less likely than men to transfer, and that women who do transfer are less
likely to earn a bachelor’s degree. Given the large wage returns to each year of college, and the large sheepskin value of a bachelor’s degree, the lower propensity by women to transfer may reduce their subsequent earnings. This paper
tests several plausible explanations for the transfer rate difference. Most notably, marital status, the presence of children, and gender differences in occupational preferences do not fully explain women’s lower transfer rates. Despite controlling
for these and other factors, women remain less likely than men to transfer from a two-year to a four-year college.
2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
JEL classification: I21; J24 Keywords: Two-year college; Transfer; Community college; Return to college; Human capital
1. Introduction
Nearly one-third of all students who attend a two-year college transfer to a four-year college by the time they
turn 25. This paper demonstrates that women are less likely than men to transfer, and that women who do
transfer are less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree. Given the large wage returns to each year of college, and the
large sheepskin value of a bachelor’s degree, the lower propensity by women to transfer may reduce their sub-
sequent earnings. This paper tests several plausible explanations for the transfer rate difference. Most
notably, marital status, the presence of children, and gen- der differences in occupational preferences do not fully
explain women’s lower transfer rates. Despite con- trolling for these and other factors, women remain less
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2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 7 2 - 7 7 5 7 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 - 3
likely than men to transfer from a two-year to a four- year college.
Much of the recent literature relating to two- and four- year college attendance has focused on whether the
emergence of two-year colleges as major players in higher education has had a positive or negative effect on
overall education
levels among
young adults
Breneman Nelson, 1981; Brint Karabel, 1989; Grubb, 1989a; Rouse, 1995. This literature is inconclus-
ive about two-year colleges’ effects on educational attainment.
Despite its obvious importance to the question of how two-year colleges affect final education levels, to date
there has been almost no research into the decision to transfer. Ordovensky 1995, for example, examines the
effects of institutional characteristics on the choice among college types in the year immediately following
high school graduation. Students’ subsequent college attendance choices are not considered. Although Hilmer
1997 models the transfer decision, his discussion focuses almost entirely on the quality of the four-year
152 B.J. Surette Economics of Education Review 20 2001 151–163
colleges to which transfers are accepted. Rouse 1995 examines the effect of starting at a two-year college on
total years of college completed and the probability of completing a bachelor’s degree. The decision to transfer
is not examined. Finally, Grubb 1989a examined indirectly the decision to transfer from a two-year to a
four-year college using aggregate state-level data. His results suggest that women are less likely to transfer,
though data limitations prevent him from directly exam- ining that phenomenon.
This paper models attendance at both two-year and four-year colleges, as well as the decision to transfer
from a two-year to a four-year college, using a 12-year panel from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
NLSY. These data allow the direct examination of the decision to transfer and provides an understanding of
which factors play a major role in that decision. The main conclusion from this paper is that, despite the large
number of economic and demographic variables used to control for differences in college attendance decisions,
women are less likely than men to transfer.
2. Descriptive results
