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Author: Pan, Guanghui
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Zhou, Xiang
Pan, Guanghui
Higher Education and the Black-White Earnings Gap
Presented: Atlanta GA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2022
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): College Education; Racial Equality/Inequality; Wage Gap

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We employ a novel causal decomposition, along with a debiased machine learning method for estimation, to isolate the equalizing and disequalizing effects of college on the black-white earnings gap and unveil the sources of these effects. Analyzing data from the NLSY97, we find that among men, the attainment of a BA degree has a strong equalizing effect on earnings in their early thirties, but this equalizing effect is blunted by a disequalizing effect associated with unequal likelihoods of BA completion. To illuminate the policy implications of our findings, we estimate counterfactual black-white earnings gaps under a set of idealized educational interventions. We find that only interventions that both boost rates of college attendance and BA completion and close racial disparities in these transitions can substantially reduce the black-white earnings gap.
Bibliography Citation
Zhou, Xiang and Guanghui Pan. "Higher Education and the Black-White Earnings Gap." Presented: Atlanta GA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2022.
2. Zhou, Xiang
Pan, Guanghui
Higher Education and the Black-White Earnings Gap
American Sociological Review published online (27 January 2023): DOI:10.1177/00031224221141887.
Also: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00031224221141887
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): College Degree; Racial Equality/Inequality; Wage Gap

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

How does higher education shape the Black-White earnings gap? It may help close the gap if Black youth benefit more from attending and completing college than do White youth. On the other hand, Black college-goers are less likely to complete college relative to White students, and this disparity in degree completion helps reproduce racial inequality. In this study, we use a novel causal decomposition and a debiased machine learning method to isolate, quantify, and explain the equalizing and stratifying roles of college. Analyzing data from the NLSY97, we find that a bachelor's degree has a strong equalizing effect on earnings among men (albeit not among women); yet, at the population level, this equalizing effect is partly offset by unequal likelihoods of bachelor's completion between Black and White students. Moreover, a bachelor's degree narrows the male Black-White earnings gap not by reducing the influence of class background and pre-college academic ability, but by lessening the "unexplained" penalty of being Black in the labor market. To illuminate the policy implications of our findings, we estimate counterfactual earnings gaps under a series of stylized educational interventions. We find that interventions that both boost rates of college attendance and bachelor's completion and close racial disparities in these transitions can substantially reduce the Black-White earnings gap.
Bibliography Citation
Zhou, Xiang and Guanghui Pan. "Higher Education and the Black-White Earnings Gap." American Sociological Review published online (27 January 2023): DOI:10.1177/00031224221141887.