Race and College Success: Evidence from Missouri

Peter Arcidiacono and Cory Koedel

No 19188, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Conditional on enrollment, African American students are substantially less likely to graduate from 4-year public universities than white students. Using administrative micro data from Missouri, we decompose the graduation gap between African Americans and whites into four factors: (1) racial differences in how students sort to universities, (2) racial differences in how students sort to initial majors, (3) racial differences in school quality prior to entry, and (4) racial differences in other observed pre-entry skills. Pre-entry skills explain 65 and 86 percent of the gap for women and men respectively. A small role is found for differential sorting into college, particularly for women, and this is driven by African Americans being disproportionately represented at urban schools and the schools at the very bottom of the quality distribution.

JEL-codes: I23 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-edu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published as Peter Arcidiacono & Cory Koedel, 2014. "Race and College Success: Evidence from Missouri," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 20-57, July.

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Journal Article: Race and College Success: Evidence from Missouri (2014)
Working Paper: Race and College Success: Evidence from Missouri (2013)
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