Working Paper: NBER ID: w19188
Authors: Peter Arcidiacono; Cory Koedel
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.
Keywords: college graduation; racial disparities; educational attainment
JEL Codes: I23; J15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Racial differences in university sorting (D29) | Graduation gap for African American women (I24) |
| Racial differences in university sorting (D29) | Graduation gap for African American men (I24) |
| Improving high school quality (I21) | Graduation gap for African American women (I24) |
| Improving high school quality (I21) | Graduation gap for African American men (I24) |
| Aligning preentry skills (A21) | Graduation gap for African American women (I24) |
| Aligning preentry skills (A21) | Graduation gap for African American men (I24) |
| University sorting like white counterparts (I24) | African American graduation rates (I24) |