Colleges and Upward Mobility in the US Over the Last Century

上个世纪美国的大学和向上流动

• 批准号: 2214952
• 负责人: Ran Abramitzky
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2214952&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Colleges; Upward; Mobility; US; Over

Access to college education is widely regarded as an important path to economic mobility. However, to the extent that children from richer families attend more highly ranked colleges than children from poorer families, higher education might actually amplify the persistence of economic status across generations rather than “leveling the playing field”. This project will bring new data and a long-term perspective to the study of higher education and inequality and intergenerational mobility in the US. To do so, the investigators will construct a large dataset with information on the socioeconomic backgrounds and post-college outcomes of US college students over the last 100 years. To collect these data, the investigators will first digitize the rosters of students attending different US colleges from the early 1900s and until the 1950s. In a second step, they will link these students to US population censuses, enabling them to observe students’ childhood circumstances and their own adult outcomes (such as income). The researchers will use this dataset to investigate important questions related to higher education in the US, for instance: (1) To what extent has access to “elite” colleges increased over the last century for students from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds?, (2) Which colleges have been the most effective at improving the labor market prospects of their students, particularly those from poorer families? (3) What have been the effects of changes in colleges’ admission practices (for instance, the introduction of standardized testing) on the socioeconomic composition of the students that they enroll? This new dataset, which the investigators will make publicly available, will also offer many exciting research opportunities for other scholars. Moreover, by identifying colleges in which students have better outcomes today than in the past, this dataset will also help identify the institutional changes associated with these improvements.This project will bring new data and a long-term perspective on the role of higher education in inequality and intergenerational mobility in the US. To do so, the investigators will construct a large individual-level dataset of students who attended different US colleges over the course of the 20th century. This data collection will proceed in two steps. In a first step, they will digitize historical college registers for students attending different US colleges from the early 1900s and until the 1950s. In a second step, they will link these students to US population censuses, enabling them to observe both their childhood circumstances and their own longer-term adult outcomes (such as income). Linking these two sources of data is made possible by the fact that the both the college registers and the census include identifying information such as students’ names and hometowns. By combining these data with similarly constructed data for students attending college in more recent years, the investigators will be able to characterize the socioeconomic backgrounds and post-college outcomes of US college students over the last 100 years. The investigators will use these data to address a number of questions related to access to higher education in the US: (1) To what extent has access to “elite” colleges increased over the last century for students from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds? (2) What has been the influence of changes in colleges’ admission practices (for instance, the introduction of standardized testing) on the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students that they enroll? (3) Which colleges have been the most effective at improving the labor market prospects of their students, particularly for those at the bottom of the income distribution? This new dataset, which the investigators will make publicly available, will offer many exciting research opportunities for scholars in fields such as economics, history, and education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

接受大学教育被普遍认为是通往经济流动性的重要途径。但是，在一定程度上，来自富裕家庭的儿童与贫困家庭的儿童相比，高等教育的高等学院，高等教育实际上可能会扩大世代相传的经济状况的持久性，而不是“阐明运动环境”。该项目将为美国的高等教育以及不平等和代际流动性研究带来新的数据和长期观点。为此，调查人员将构建一个大型数据集，其中包含有关在过去100年中美国大学生的社会经济背景和大学后结果的信息。为了收集这些数据，调查人员将首先将从1900年代初和1950年代的美国大学的学生组成。在第二步中，他们将把这些学生与美国人口普查联系起来，使他们能够观察学生的童年状况和自己的成人成果（例如收入）。研究人员将使用该数据集调查与美国高等教育有关的重要问题，例如：（1）上个世纪，对于来自较贫穷的社会经济背景的学生，对“精英”大学的访问程度有所增加吗？ （3）大学录取实践变化（例如，标准化测试的引入）对他们入学的学生的社会经济组成有什么影响？调查人员将公开可用的新数据集将为其他学者提供许多令人兴奋的研究机会。此外，通过确定与过去相比，该数据集比过去更好的成果的大学，该数据集还将有助于确定与这些改进相关的机构变化。该项目将带来新的数据以及关于高等教育在美国不平等和代际交易中的作用的长期观点。为此，调查人员将构建一个大量的个人数据集，这些数据集的学生在20世纪在美国大学的不同大学中就读。该数据收集将以两个步骤进行。第一步，他们将为从1900年代初（直到1950年代）就读于美国大学的学生数字化历史学院注册。在第二步中，他们将把这些学生与美国人口普查联系起来，使他们能够观察他们的童年状况和自己的长期成人成果（例如收入）。链接这两个数据来源是由于大学注册和人口普查包括识别信息（例如学生的姓名和家乡）的事实而成为可能的。通过将这些数据与近年来在大学上学的学生相似的数据结合在一起，调查人员将能够表征过去100年来美国大学生的社会经济背景和大学后的结果。调查人员将使用这些数据来解决与美国获得高等教育有关的许多问题：（1）上个世纪，对于来自较贫穷的社会经济背景的学生，对“精英”大学的访问程度有所增加？ （2）大学录取实践变化的影响（例如，标准化测试的引入）对他们入学的学生的社会经济背景的影响是什么？ （3）哪些大学最有效地改善了学生的劳动力市场前景，特别是对于收入分配底部的人来说？研究人员将公开可用的新数据集将为经济学，历史和教育等领域的学者提供许多令人兴奋的研究机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛影响的审查标准通过评估来通过评估来获得支持的。