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Douglas Webber

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, USA, and IZA, Germany

IZA represents the largest and most influential collection of researchers who work on issues related to labor market policy. The IZA World of Labor project will serve to synthesize the enormous body of knowledge on labor topics for policymakers at all levels of government and business

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Senior Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, USA

Research interest

Labour economics, applied econometrics, and the economics of education

Website

http://bit.ly/Webber_IZApage

Past positions

Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Temple University, USA (2017–2021); Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Temple University, USA (2012–2017)

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Cornell University, 2012

Selected publications

  • “Firm-level monopsony and the gender pay gap.” Industrial Relations (Forthcoming).

  • “The lifetime earnings premia of different majors: Correcting for selection based on cognitive, noncognitive, and unobserved factors.” Labour Economics 28 (2014): 14–23.

  • “Do expenditures other than instructional expenditures affect graduation and persistence rates in American higher education?” Economics of Education Review 29:6 (2010): 947–958 (with R. G. Ehrenberg).

article(s)

  • Is the return to education the same for everybody?

    While a four-year college degree is financially beneficial for most people, it is not necessarily the best option for everyone

    Douglas Webber, October 2014
    A postsecondary degree is often held up as the one sure path to financial success. But is that true regardless of institutional quality, discipline studied, or individual characteristics? Is a college degree always worth the cost? Students deciding whether to invest in college and what field to study may be making the most important financial decision of their lives. The return to education varies greatly by institutional quality, discipline, and individual characteristics. Estimating the returns for as many options as possible, and making that information as transparent as possible, are paramount in helping prospective students make the best decision.
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