Who benefits from obtaining a GED? Evidence from high school and beyond

This paper examines the value of the GED credential and the conventional hi gh school diploma in explaining the earnings of 27-year-old males in the ea rly 1990s. The data base is the High School and Beyond sophomore cohort. We replicate the basic findings of prior studies that implicitly assume the labor market value of the GED credential does not depend on the skills wit h which dropouts left school. We show that these average effects mask a mor e complicated pattern. Obtaining a GED is associated with higher earnings a t age 27 for those male dropouts who had very weak cognitive skills as tent h graders, but not for those who had stronger cognitive skills as tenth gra ders.