Working Paper

Why Does Educational Attainment Differ Across U.S. States?

Lutz Hendricks
CESifo, Munich, 2004

CESifo Working Paper No. 1335

The fraction of persons holding a college degree differs nearly two-fold across U.S. states. This paper documents data related to state educational attainment differences and explores possible explanations. It shows that highly educated states employ skillbiased technologies, specialize in skill-intensive industries, but do not pay lower skill premia than do less educated states. Moreover, measures of urbanization and population density are positively related to educational attainment. Theories based on agglomeration economies offer natural explanations for these observations.

Keywords: education, agglomeration