Elite Universities and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human and Social Capital
Abstract
Do elite colleges help talented students from modest backgrounds join the social elite, or help incumbent elites retain their positions? We combine five decades of data on parents and children in Chile with a regression discontinuity design to show that, in the long run, elite colleges in fact do both. When lower-status individuals gain admission to elite college degree programs, they transform their children's social environment. Children become 21% more likely to attend high-status private schools and 8% more likely to attend an elite college. They live near and are more likely to befriend high-status peers. In contrast, parent elite admission does not improve children's academic performance in high school or on college admissions exams. Parents' social and marriage-market exposure to high-status peers, rather than high-achieving peers, are key mediators of effects for children. Simulations combining descriptive and quasi-experimental results highlight how elite colleges simultaneously tighten the link between social capital and human capital and increase the persistence of elite social capital across generations. Plausible shifts in admission policies can produce substantial movement along this mobility-meritocracy frontier.
Article- Coauthors: Andrés Barrios Fernández, Seth D. Zimmerman
- Published: American Economic Review (forthcoming 2024)
- Date: 2024-12-01
