Elite Universities and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human and Social Capital

61 Pages Posted: 13 Apr 2022

See all articles by Andrés Barrios Fernández

Andrés Barrios Fernández

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Economics; London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP); VATT Institute for Economic Research

Christopher Neilson

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business; Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Seth D. Zimmerman

Yale University; University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

Date Written: December 1, 2021

Abstract

Whether elite universities expand or limit upward mobility in the long run depends on how they shape the intergenerational transmission of educational and social outcomes. We combine five decades of linked data on social and educational trajectories for parents and children in Chile with a regression discontinuity design to describe the intergenerational evolution of social and human capital and illuminate the causal role that elite colleges play. We first document intertwined intergenerational persistence in academic achievement and social status. Mean child rank on college admissions exams is linear in parent rank, with higher intercepts and flatter slopes for children whose parents attend a set of high-status, high-tuition private high schools whose graduates make up large shares of Chilean corporate and political leadership. Children of high-status parents are much more likely to attend high-status high schools and enroll in elite college degree programs, with gaps increasing in parents’ exam rank. We then show that parents’ access to elite colleges raises child social capital, but not human capital. Children of parents just above the threshold for admission to elite degree programs score no better on college entrance exams than children of parents just below, but are 25% more likely to attend a high-status high school and 7% more likely to attend an elite college. Spouses and social groups are the key mediating factors. A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that low social capital families are 21% more common among the beneficiaries of elite colleges admission than among the next generation’s social elite as a whole. We conclude that elite colleges shape the social trajectories of family dynasties. They transmit social capital unequally, but less so than other paths through which social capital travels across generations.

Keywords: Elite universities, intergenerational mobility, human capital, social capital.

JEL Classification: I24, D64, J62

Suggested Citation

Barrios Fernández, Andrés and Neilson, Christopher and Zimmerman, Seth D., Elite Universities and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human and Social Capital (December 1, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4071712 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4071712

Andrés Barrios Fernández (Contact Author)

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Economics ( email )

London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

VATT Institute for Economic Research ( email )

Arkadiankatu 7
P.O Box 1279
Helsinki, FIN-00531
Finland
0503013739 (Phone)
00101 (Fax)

Christopher Neilson

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business ( email )

44 West 4th Street
Suite 9-160
New York, NY NY 10012
United States

Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs ( email )

Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1021
United States

Seth D. Zimmerman

Yale University ( email )

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business ( email )

5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

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