Sheepskins

The average college diploma is worth considerably less on the open market than it has been in the past, according to a recently released study by a member of the Economics Department.

Richard B. Freeman, associate professor of Economics, said Monday that white male college graduates no longer enjoy a substantial earnings advantage over their counterparts who lack degrees.

Freeman attributed this narrowing of the income gap to the increased number of college-educated people in the job force, coupled with a general decline in demand on the part of employers.

This decline is limited to the areas of humanities and the social sciences, fields which do not emphasize specific training for professional careers, Freeman said.

Freeman cited statistics showing a sharp drop in the number of recent Harvard graduates applying to non-professional graduate programs as proof of the declining status of such degrees.