| This thesis investigates the relationship between the type of education a student receives and economic outcomes by estimating the effect of private school education on earnings and on the probabilities of high school graduation, college attendance, and college graduation. Differences in these educational outcomes that occur between public and private school students and among different kinds of private schools are emphasized.; To address these outcomes, data on public and private school attendance from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) are used. A special educational supplement, collected in 1995, provides data not only on private school attendance but also on the specific type of private school attended, the number of years attended, and whether the attendance was in the primary or secondary years of schooling. Because public school students and private school students differ in many ways that potentially affect the outcomes that I am interested in, I estimate models that control for selection bias using the many background variables contained in the PSID (e.g., family income, parental education) and treating private school attendance endogenously.; Estimates from the earnings model, which display no significant evidence of selection bias, suggest that private or Catholic school attendance is associated with higher earnings, on the magnitude of 10% to 17%. While Catholic school attendance is associated with a higher probability of high school graduation, it is not a significant factor in the probability of college attendance or college graduation. Due to the small number of other religious and nonreligious school attendants, no meaningful outcome effects could be estimated. |
