The Immediate Post-College Transition and its Role in Socioeconomic Earnings Gaps
- Reference: 0180370065
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/12/1537259/the-immediate-post-college-transition-and-its-role-in-socioeconomic-earnings-gaps
- Source link:
The [1]research [PDF] , published as an NBER working paper by economists at Columbia University, tracked graduates from 2010 to 2017 using administrative education data linked to state unemployment insurance records. Low-income students -- defined as those receiving Pell grants throughout their undergraduate enrollment -- earned about 12% less than their high-income peers at the five-year mark. A substantial gap of roughly $4,900 persisted even after the researchers controlled for GPA, college attended, major, and other pre-graduation characteristics. That residual gap fell to about $1,700 once first-job variables entered the equation.
Graduates from lower-income families tended to start at employers paying lower average wages and were less likely to have their first job secured before graduation. Just 34% of low-income graduates continued at a pre-graduation employer compared to 40% of their higher-income peers. The firms employing low-income graduates paid average wages that were 18% lower than those employing high-income graduates. The researchers say that while the study cannot establish causation, the patterns suggest that supporting low-income students during their transition from college to the labor market may be a fruitful area for policy intervention.
[1] https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w34366/w34366.pdf
Wow, shocking! (Score:2)
> The researchers say that while the study cannot establish causation, the patterns suggest that supporting low-income students during their transition from college to the labor market may be a fruitful area for policy intervention.
They figured out giving poor college students money when they graduate may be "fruitful"?
Did anyone consider the majors/degrees the poor students and the other (non-poor?) students graduated with? Of course not, why would that matter? The point of this study was to affirm the obvious - people that need money to afford college could probably benefit from continuing to get money after college.
It is very hard for me to imagine a scenario where it would be harmful to give anyone any money at any time for any pu
Nepo babies (Score:2)
This just illustrates the way the rich get richer.
Going to a "good" school means that you make connections to get a good job and then it just keeps going from there on out.
The importance of diversity in college (Score:3)
Diversity makes us strong and it makes you stronger. This just highlights the importance of making friends and connections outside your normal circle. As other posters have said, it's not what you know, but who you know.
If you just hang with friends from back home or from similar circumstances you'll fall into the trap of having few options. In college you need to diversify your friends and networks and get to know all sorts of folks. This will help you in career significantly.
News @ 11, Group Think! (Score:2)
Ideological Elites from the Ivy League usually hire Ideological Elites from the Ivy League.
This is missing one important piece (Score:2)
Every graduate is not identical
Talent is real. Effort is real.
A talented student who works hard will do better that a not so talented student who slouches through college socializing, binge drinking and cheating on exams
The line "fruitful area for policy intervention" is especially troublesome, as it assumes that government can somehow make the inferior students succeed as well as the best
The premise of this is nonsense (Score:2)
Yeah of course people from high income families get better paying jobs. They can hold out longer for better pay and are less likely to take the first thing that comes along, they have a lot more connections and family that can get them better paying jobs because it pays to be a nepo baby and they can afford to take more risks in their career jumping from job to job for better pay because they know that they have family they can fall back on if all else fails.
All this study did was discover the phenomeno
Re: (Score:1)
That's another way of saying... It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know that matters.