A U-turn in inequality in college attainment by parental education in the US?. (December 2018)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- A U-turn in inequality in college attainment by parental education in the US?. (December 2018)
- Main Title:
- A U-turn in inequality in college attainment by parental education in the US?
- Authors:
- Bernardi, Fabrizio
Hertel, Florian R.
Yastrebov, Gordey - Abstract:
- Abstract: We study the evolution of intergenerational inequality of college attainment in the United States over the 20th century. For this purpose, we expand the Breen-Goldthorpe model of educational investment behaviour and show formally that a rise in the costs of college education and in inequality in economic resources by social origins lead to an increase in inequality in educational attainment. In our empirical analysis we use five different national representative surveys and focus on the chances of college attainment by parental college education for birth cohorts from 1900 to 1987. Our results confirm that relative inequality in college attainment, measured in terms of odds ratios, declined over most of the 20th century with equalization levelling off beginning with birth cohorts in the 1960s. At the same time, the absolute differences in the percentage of graduates among children of college-educated parents and children of non-graduates have remained remarkably stable across the century. Based on our formal model, we finally explore future scenarios for the trends in college attainment inequality. Given high resource inequality and rising costs for college education, our models point to a decline in college attainment of individuals with non-graduate backgrounds and consequently to a rise of relative inequality in college attainment by parental education. While not yet discernible, such a development might lead to a possible U-shape trend for recent and currentAbstract: We study the evolution of intergenerational inequality of college attainment in the United States over the 20th century. For this purpose, we expand the Breen-Goldthorpe model of educational investment behaviour and show formally that a rise in the costs of college education and in inequality in economic resources by social origins lead to an increase in inequality in educational attainment. In our empirical analysis we use five different national representative surveys and focus on the chances of college attainment by parental college education for birth cohorts from 1900 to 1987. Our results confirm that relative inequality in college attainment, measured in terms of odds ratios, declined over most of the 20th century with equalization levelling off beginning with birth cohorts in the 1960s. At the same time, the absolute differences in the percentage of graduates among children of college-educated parents and children of non-graduates have remained remarkably stable across the century. Based on our formal model, we finally explore future scenarios for the trends in college attainment inequality. Given high resource inequality and rising costs for college education, our models point to a decline in college attainment of individuals with non-graduate backgrounds and consequently to a rise of relative inequality in college attainment by parental education. While not yet discernible, such a development might lead to a possible U-shape trend for recent and current birth cohorts in the near future. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Research in social stratification and mobility. Volume 58(2018)
- Journal:
- Research in social stratification and mobility
- Issue:
- Volume 58(2018)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 58, Issue 2018 (2018)
- Year:
- 2018
- Volume:
- 58
- Issue:
- 2018
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2018-0058-2018-0000
- Page Start:
- 33
- Page End:
- 43
- Publication Date:
- 2018-12
- Subjects:
- Intergenerational Educational Mobility -- USA -- Educational expansion -- Simulation -- College inequality -- Breen-Goldthorpe model
Social mobility -- Periodicals
Occupational mobility -- Periodicals
Social status -- Periodicals
Social conflict -- Periodicals
Social classes -- Periodicals
Mobilité sociale -- Périodiques
Mobilité professionnelle -- Périodiques
Statut social -- Périodiques
Conflits sociaux -- Périodiques
Classes sociales -- Périodiques
305.05 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02765624 ↗
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/bookseries/02765624 ↗
http://www.elsevier.com/journals ↗
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/research-in-social-stratification-and-mobility/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.rssm.2018.09.003 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0276-5624
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 7770.630000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 11435.xml