Author(s)
Stefania Albanesi
Rania Gihleb
Ning Zhang

Labor market outcomes for young college graduates have deteriorated substantially in the last twenty five years, and more of them are residing with their parents. The unemployment rate at 23-27 years old for the 1996 college graduation cohort was 9%, whereas it rose to 12% for the 2013 graduation cohort. While only 25% of the 1996 cohort lived with their parents, 31% for the 2013 cohort chose this option. Our hypothesis is that the declining availability of ‘matched jobs’ that require a college degree is a key factor behind these developments. Using a structurally estimated model of child-parent decisions, in which coresidence improves college graduates’ quality of job matches, we find that lower matched job arrival rates explain two thirds of the rise in unemployment and coresidence between the 2013 and 1996 graduation cohorts. Rising wage dispersion is also important for the increase in unemployment, while declining parental income, rising student loan balances and higher rental costs only play a marginal role.

Publication Type
Working Paper
File Description
First version, September 5, 2022
JEL Codes
I23: Higher Education and Research Institutions
D13: Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation
E24: Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital
Keywords
labor market outcomes
college attainment
educational attainment
household behavior