EG: It is not clear to me that equal percentage income boosts relative to baseline is what we "should" expect education to do. That we fall short of even that yardstick indicates that things are worse than I had believed: Noah Smith: The Rich Get the Most Out of College: "Tim Bartik... Brad Hershbein... the college earnings premium—the lifetime difference in earnings between those who get a bachelor’s degree and those who only finish high school—was substantial for people from all income backgrounds...
...For people from families below 185 percent of the poverty line, a 71 percent earnings premium translated to a lifetime income boost of $335,000—hardly something to sneer at, and much more than the cost of most college degrees. And interestingly, for people from families actually below the poverty line, Bartik and Hershbein found a very large premium of 179 percent.... The class difference... doesn’t exist for black people, or for women....
[But] the college system may be increasing inequality.... College graduates who come from high-income families... have a much higher chance of accessing the top of the earnings distribution than otherwise similar individuals who come from poorer families. This is sadly predictable, since part of the benefit of college comes not from classes and studying but from the people you meet. For poor kids, this can mean learning about better career options from more privileged peers. But for rich kids, it can mean networking with other rich kids.... So college is very important for the poor, but it may be even more beneficial for the rich—especially the rich, white and male...
#shouldread
