Colleges and Upward Mobility in the US Over the Last Century

人们普遍认为，接受大学教育是实现经济流动的重要途径。然而，在某种程度上，富裕家庭的孩子比贫困家庭的孩子上的大学排名更高，高等教育实际上可能会放大经济地位在几代人之间的持久性，而不是“拉平竞争环境”。该项目将为美国高等教育、不平等和代际流动性的研究带来新的数据和长远的视角。为了做到这一点，研究人员将构建一个大型数据集，其中包含过去100年来美国大学生的社会经济背景和毕业后结果的信息。为了收集这些数据，调查人员将首先数字化从20世纪初到20世纪50年代在美国不同大学就读的学生名单。在第二步，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环境和他们自己的成年结果(如收入)。研究人员将利用这个数据集来调查与美国高等教育相关的重要问题，例如：(1)上个世纪，对于社会经济背景较差的学生来说，进入精英大学的机会增加了多少？(2)哪些大学在改善其学生，特别是来自贫困家庭的学生的劳动力市场前景方面最有效？(3)大学招生做法的变化(例如，引入标准化考试)对所录取学生的社会经济构成有何影响？研究人员将公开这一新的数据集，它也将为其他学者提供许多令人兴奋的研究机会。此外，通过识别学生今天的成绩比过去更好的大学，这一数据集还将有助于确定与这些改善相关的制度变化。该项目将带来新的数据和对高等教育在美国不平等和代际流动中的作用的长期视角。为了做到这一点，研究人员将构建一个大型的个人水平的数据集，其中包括20世纪在美国不同大学就读的学生。这项数据收集将分两步进行。在第一步，他们将数字化从20世纪初到20世纪50年代就读不同美国大学的学生的历史大学注册表。在第二步，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童年的情况和他们自己的长期成人结果(如收入)。将这两个数据来源联系起来是因为大学注册表和人口普查都包括诸如学生姓名和家乡等识别信息。通过将这些数据与最近几年类似构建的大学生数据相结合，调查人员将能够描述过去100年来美国大学生的社会经济背景和毕业后的结果。调查人员将使用这些数据来解决与美国高等教育机会相关的一些问题：(1)上个世纪，对于社会经济背景较差的学生来说，进入“精英”大学的机会增加了多少？(2)大学招生做法的变化(例如，引入标准化考试)对他们招收的学生的社会经济背景有什么影响？(3)哪些大学在改善学生的劳动力市场前景方面最有效，特别是对那些收入分配最低的学生？调查人员将公开这一新的数据集，它将为经济、历史和教育等领域的学者提供许多令人兴奋的研究机会。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.