Does the return to university quality differ for transfer students and direct attendees?

This paper examines the return to university quality for a sample of studen ts drawn from the High School and Beyond survey. This analysis extends prev ious work by: (1) controlling for the fact that students are free to transf er between different quality institutions while pursuing their degrees and (2) allowing the return to quality to vary across different ranges of insti tutional quality. The results suggest that the return to university quality differs dramatically across both educational paths and university quality ranges. A large, positive return to graduation quality is observed for univ ersity and community college transfers graduating from the highest quality universities, while an insignificant return is observed for all other stude nts. Additionally, the length of time spent at initial institutions has a s ignificant negative effect on university transfers. These findings suggest that it is important to consider a student's educational path when examinin g the return to higher education. [JEL J31] (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.