Degrees of Inequality: Changing Horizontal Stratification in Bachelor’s Degrees by Institution and Field in the 21st Century

CRIS SCIENTIFIC SEMINAR

TALK WITH HUNTER YORK, PhD Candidate, Princeton University (Department of Sociology and the Office of Population Research)

This study leverages a novel dataset linking U.S. graduates’ specific educational credentials - defined as the unique combination of degree level, awarding institution, and field of study - to realized earnings and industry destinations for cohorts from 2001 onward. 

It offers the first comprehensive estimates of how horizontal stratification across institutions and fields of study shapes earnings inequality among U.S. bachelor’s degrees, both from a static perspective and over time across several graduating cohorts. 

I find that field of study is a stronger predictor of earnings than institutional affiliation, and its importance is growing, though modestly, over time. For both fields of study and institution, the underlying structure behind their importance has been shifting. Field of study's growing importance is largely driven by baseline linkages of certain fields of study to industrial sectors that have seen rising average wages like finance, technology, and professional services. 

Though variation between universities explains a smaller share of inequality, it is increasingly associated with observable institutional characteristics like test scores and enrollment. 

Over time, neither shifts in enrollment across institutions and fields nor within-field demographic recomposition meaningfully explain these trends. Likewise, there is no evidence that high-earning credentials have become increasingly concentrated within high-earning institutions. Rather, the findings suggest that as economic returns become increasingly concentrated in a few high-earnings industries, high-earning fields of study already closely tied to those industries have become even more so, reinforcing and consolidating new forms of labor market inequality.

To find out more (Hunter York's Website)  - Thank you to register!