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Cited by 944Intergenerational and Educational Inequality StudiesLabor market dynamics and wage inequalitySchool Choice and Performance

Social and Economic Returns to College Education in the United States

Hout, Michael·2012·Annual Review of Sociology
DOI 10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102503
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Abstract

Education correlates strongly with most important social and economic outcomes such as economic success, health, family stability, and social connections. Theories of stratification and selection created doubts about whether education actually caused good things to happen. Because schools and colleges select who continues and who does not, it was easy to imagine that education added little of substance. Evidence now tips the balance away from bias and selection and in favor of substance. Investments in education pay off for individuals in many ways. The size of the direct effect of education varies among individuals and demographic groups. Education affects individuals and groups who are less likely to pursue a college education more than traditional college students. A smaller literature on social returns to education indicates that communities, states, and nations also benefit from increased education of their populations; some estimates imply that the social returns exceed the private returns.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102503

Cites

118 of 118 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

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Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • An increase in college-educated people will boost tax revenue and reduce public expenditures in healthcare and other areas.

    “the increase in college-educated people will boost tax revenue and reduce public expenditures in healthcare and other areas (Baum, Ma, and Payea 2013; Hout, 2012).”

    From Wealth, Race, and Under-Addressed Financial Need in Federal Student Aid Policy (2025) · cites this paper as Hout, 2012

  • Reviews of existing research on returns to higher education suggest high rates of return to college, even for marginal students.

    “Reviews of existing research on returns to higher education suggests high rates of return to college, even for marginal students (Oreopoulos and Peteronjevic, 2013, Hout, 2012, Barrow and Malamud, 2015).”

    From Keeping College Options Open: A Field Experiment to Help all High School Seniors Through the College Application Process (2019) · cites this paper as Hout, 2012

Cites

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Related

Authors
Hout, M.
Affiliations
University of California, Berkeley (US)
Corresponding author
Hout, Michael
ORCID
Hout, Michael
Venue
Annual Review of Sociology
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Published
2012-08-11
Volume
38
Issue
1
Pages
379-400
ISSN
  • 0360-0572 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-2115
DOI
10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102503
OpenAlex
W2162075074
Cited by
943
References
120
Citations by year
2026: 49 · 2025: 81 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 90 · 2022: 69 · 2021: 102 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 87 · 2018: 95 · 2017: 70 · 2016: 62 · 2015: 60 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 6
FWCI
9.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Annual Review of Sociology (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • Berkeley Population Center, University of California Berkeley
  • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
  • Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
Keywords
returns to education, university education, social returns, economic returns, educational stratification, selection effects, education investment

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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

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