Excess Credits and Labor Market Outcomes: Is There a Return on Additional Hours of Education?

We explore the impact of excess credits, defined as additional credit hours accumulated by students beyond the required number of hours, on labor market outcomes. We consider whether additional credits have any impact on the labor market outcomes of job mismatch and income. Data are taken from the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) study, a longitudinal survey of graduating seniors drawn from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. Our results did not find any evidence of excess credits having any influence on job mismatch or income, suggesting that excess credits are neither harmful nor beneficial from a job market perspective. This may be due to the general noisiness of the measure, as excess credits can arise from numerous, contrary circumstances. Key Words: Excess Credits; Human Capital; Returns to education; Labor market outcomes