The fraction of persons holding a college degree differs nearly two-fold across U.S. states.
This paper documents data related to state educational attainment differences and explores
possible explanations. It shows that highly educated states employ skillbiased technologies,
specialize in skill-intensive industries, but do not pay lower skill premia than do less educated
states. Moreover, measures of urbanization and population density are positively related to
educational attainment. Theories based on agglomeration economies offer natural
explanations for these observations.