Heterogeneous effects of socioeconomic status on postsecondary educational outcomes: Evidence from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002

Harrison Wright

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: There is extensive economic literature on the returns to higher education, finding substantial benefits. However, access to higher education in the United States is unequal, with students of lower socioeconomic status (SES) attending and completing college at lower rates. This paper studies the effects of SES on these two postsecondary educational outcomes, utilizing data on a cohort of students from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). Employing both linear probability and probit maximum likelihood models, we analyze the ways SES influences college attendance and completion, while controlling for critical variables such as prior academic performance, high school quality, parental education, and demographic factors to isolate the effects to the financial resources and social capital associated with higher SES. Higher SES is associated with increased probabilities of both attending and completing college, though the marginal effects vary across the range of SES. The average partial effect of a unit increase in the SES variable (which ranges from -2.11 to 1.98) is a 7.3 percentage point increase in the probability of college attendance, and a 7.6 percentage point increase for bachelor’s degree completion. There is significant heterogeneity across the range of the independent variable of interest: changes in SES have the highest (lowest) impact on attendance for low (high)-SES students, while the effect on degree completion is strongest for high-SES students and weakest for low-SES students. These results are tested for robustness to model specifications restricted by gender and race. The findings of this study highlight the continuing inequality in college access and degree attainment, with implications for policymakers and universities.

Keywords: Education; socioeconomic status; college; higher education; inequality; probit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-01-24, Revised 2025-01-24
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