Three essays on labor economic

The first chapter, "Vocational Education and its Effects on Earnings," uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth - 1997 to estimate the impact of high school vocational education for individuals who do not enroll in college. Using an instrumental variables methodology to account for selection, the presence of vocational curriculum at a public high school is used as an instrument for vocational credits earned by individuals. The results show that each additional vocational course increases an individual's earnings by five percent, but the returns are mostly benefitting white males.;The second chapter, entitled "How Active Duty Deployments after September 11th 2001 Affect Labor Market Outcomes," presents estimates of how deployments affect labor market outcomes for Reservists and members of the National Guard who were between the ages of 18 and 23 in 2001 and who were activated after September 11th, 2001. Those Reservists or National Guard members who were activated are compared to those Reservists and Guards who were not called to active duty. This paper utilizes a question present in the American Community Survey from 2003 to 2007 which asked military service members how long (s)he had served on active duty. This, along with information regarding the minimum length of active duty service each person served, allows one to compare the two samples. The average earnings benefits for those Reservists deployed are between six and 11 percent higher than those not activated after one to three years removed from service. However, the unemployment rate for those veterans is estimated to be approximately two percent higher.;In the third chapter, entitled "The Earnings Impact of Military Service Between 1993 and 2001," data from the 2003 to 2011 American Community Survey is used to estimate the earnings impact of military service for veterans who served between 1993 and September 2001. The technique proposed by Altonji, Elder, and Taber (2000, 2005) is used to account for selection into the military and provide an upper bound for the linear regression estimates. The results show that selection into the military does not explain the five percent earnings benefit veterans experience when compared to non- veterans.