Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Urban College Graduates;Their Investments In And Returns For Strong Quantitative Skills, Social Capital Skills, And Soft Skills, Marie Ellen Haynes

ETD Archive

This case study examined strong quantitative skills, social capital skills, and soft skills of urban college graduates using data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality Household Survey. The urban college graduates lived in Atlanta, Boston, or Los Angeles and had bachelor's, master's, PhD, and professional degrees. Among the three skills only strong quantitative skills was found to be associated with positive and significant returns. Those returns did not emerge because strong quantitative skills were used as a proxy for the ability to perform jobs that require frequent use of mathematics and frequent use of computers. Instead, strong quantitative skills …