There is much public discussion but almost no evidence on the effects
of high school curriculum on postsecondary education and on success in
the labor market. I use the large variation in curriculum across U.S.
high schools to identify the effects on wages and educational attainm
ent of specific courses of study. The main finding is that the return
to additional courses in academic subjects is small. One cannot accoun
t for the value of a year of high school with estimates of the value o
f the courses taken by the typical student during the year.