TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Miller, Lois
        TI  - Switching Schools: Effects of College Transfers
        PY  - 2026/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18568
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18568
        AB  - Using Texas administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, I study how transferring between colleges affects students’ earnings. I leverage applications and admissions data to uncover unpublished GPA cutoffs used for transfer student admissions at each fouryear institution, then use these cutoffs as an instrument for transfer. I do not find positive earnings returns for academically marginal students who transfer from two-year to four-year colleges or from less-resourced four-year colleges to flagship colleges and show suggestive evidence of negative returns. Mechanisms include academic “mismatch” among two-year to four-year transfers, and substitution out of high-paying majors for four-year to flagship transfers.
        KW  - college transfer
KW  - returns to education
KW  - community college
        ER  -