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PreprintCited by 632Intergenerational and Educational Inequality StudiesHigher Education Research StudiesSchool Choice and Performance

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 40 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 12 of the 38 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility

Open access
Chetty, Raj, Friedman, John, Saez, Emmanuel, Turner, Nicholas, Yagan, Danny·2017·National Bureau of Economic Research
DOI 10.3386/w23618
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Abstract

Working paper documenting large differences in low-income access and upward mobility across U.S. colleges.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3386/w23618

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

12 of 38 cited sources checked · 7 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 108
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 48
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 3
146 of 146

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Much of the observed difference in outcomes across colleges is due to endogenous selection of students into colleges rather than treatment effects.

    “Much of the difference in outcomes we observe across colleges is presumably due to endogenous selection of students into colleges rather than treatment effects.”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    More selective colleges produce better outcomes for high-income students.

    “(if more selective colleges produce better outcomes for high-income students)”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Among students admitted to a given college, children from low-income families do not have higher ability levels than children from high-income families.

    “first, that children from low-income families do not have higher ability levels than those from high-income families among students admitted to a given college”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Children's incomes are weakly increasing in parents' incomes, holding all else equal.

    “second, that children's incomes are weakly increasing in parents incomes, holding all else equal.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    SAT scores and admissions rates are valid measures of academic qualifications.

    “In practice, Stony Brook admits students with weaker academic qualifications than Columbia, at least based on observables.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Congress raised the Pell Grant income eligibility threshold significantly between 2000 and 2011.

    “Congress raised the income eligibility threshold for Pell Grants significantly between 2000 and 2011”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Real incomes fell sharply during the 2000s at the bottom of the distribution.

    “incomes fell sharply during the 2000s at the bottom of the distribution”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Each college's success rate is fixed at levels observed in the 1980-82 cohorts for predicting mobility changes.

    “we assume that each college's success rate is fixed at the levels observed in our cross-sectional sample (the 1980-82 cohorts)”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Almost all students who receive a federally subsidized loan (and most Pell recipients) for attending a given college in academic year t to t+1 will also have a 1098-T from that college in calendar year t or t+1 or both.

    “almost all students who receive a federally subsidized loan (and most students who receive a Pell grant) for attending a given college x in academic year t to t+1 will also have a 1098-T from college x in calendar year t or t+1 or both.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Almost all students with American parents who pay no tuition are from low-income families, are Pell-eligible, and must acquire a Pell grant to receive a tuition waiver.

    “Almost all such students with American parents are from low-income families, are eligible for a Pell grant from the federal government, and are required by their colleges to acquire a Pell grant in order to receive their tuition waiver.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Children who move abroad but are US citizens must file standard tax returns and report worldwide income, including foreign earnings, but those earnings do not appear on W-2s.

    “children who move abroad (but are U.S. citizens) are required to file standard tax returns and report their worldwide income, including any foreign earnings, but those earnings do not show up on W-2s.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Negative self-employment income is generally due to business losses and is correlated with high latent income or wealth.

    “negative self-employment income is generally due to business losses and is thus generally correlated with having a high level of latent income or wealth.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Negative family income is generally due to business losses and denotes high potential earnings ability, so ranking such parents at the bottom is misleading.

    “Negative income is generally due to business losses and denotes high potential earnings ability so that ranking such parents at the very bottom is actually misleading.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Most colleges file a 1098-T for every student, regardless of whether tuition has been waived.

    “Most colleges file a 1098-T for every student, regardless of whether the student's tuition has been waived.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Some colleges do not file a 1098-T for students who pay no tuition.

    “some colleges do not file a 1098-T for students who pay no tuition.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    NSLDS contains information on every Pell grant awarded, including the college receiving the Pell payment.

    “The NSLDS contains information on every Pell grant awarded, including the college receiving the Pell payment”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Pell grant payments are remitted directly from the federal government to the college the student attended.

    “Pell grant payments are remitted directly from the federal government to the college the student attended”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Most students at UC-Berkeley do not also attend Stanford.

    “In order to correctly map Berkeley's OPEID and EIN-ZIP pair, we rely on the fact that most Berkeley students do not also attend Stanford.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    When a college filed 1098-T forms for a Pell student whose enrollment began in calendar year t, it likely also filed a 1098-T for that student in year t.

    “If the college had submitted 1098-Ts on behalf of a given Pell student whose enrollment period began in calendar year t, the college would likely have submitted a 1098-T for the student in calendar year t (had it been required to do so).”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    When a Pell student's enrollment spanned fall and spring, the college likely filed 1098-T forms in both calendar year t and t+1.

    “If the college had submitted 1098-Ts on behalf of a given Pell student, and if that student's enrollment period straddled a fall and spring term, the college would likely have submitted a 1098-T in calendar year t + 1 as well as in calendar year t.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    A single-semester Pell grant usually equals only half of the student's annual maximum Pell amount, even when tuition is high.

    “Pell grants for a single semester typically have an amount equal to only half of the student's annual Pell maximum grant amount, even if tuition is very expensive.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Colleges with many Pell students file 1098-T forms for all students regardless of tuition billing status.

    “consistent with these colleges issuing 1098-T forms for all students regardless of their tuition billing status”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Real enrollment changes tend to be very smooth from year to year.

    “which tend to be very smooth across years.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The College Scorecard's student population consists of enrollees receiving federal financial aid, as recorded in NSLDS.

    “The Scorecard's student population is the subset of enrollees who receive federal financial aid, as recorded in the Education Department's National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) data.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The College Scorecard reports exact statistics on student earnings by college.

    “The College Scorecard reports exact statistics on student earnings by college.”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The distribution of ability among low-income students is weakly decreasing relative to high-income students; the likelihood ratio of low- to high-income ability densities falls weakly with ability.

    “Given existing evidence that students from higherincome families have higher test scores and college preparation by the end of high school, we assume that the proportion of students from low-income families is weakly decreasing in ability a, or equivalently that the likelihood ratio, g P (a) g R (a) , falls weakly with a (i.e., satisfies the monotone likelihood ratio property).”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Each college admits students at a single ability level.

    “For simplicity, we assume that each college, c, admits students at a single ability level a c ; we discuss the implications of relaxing this assumption below.”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Children's earnings increase weakly with family income, all else equal, for all ability levels and colleges.

    “We assume that, all else equal, children's earnings increase weakly with their family's income: y acP ≤ y acR for all a and c.”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Colleges provide some affirmative action for low-income students, so rich students at a given college have weakly higher ability than poor students at the same college.

    “In this case, as long as rich students at a given college c have (weakly) higher ability than poor students at the same college -i.e., colleges provide some affirmative action for students from low-income backgrounds -then the result above holds.Formally, if we assume a cP ≤ a cR for all c, then”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The share of students attending Ivy-Plus colleges within each parental income ventile remains fixed at the level observed for the 1980 cohort.

    “We assume that the share of students who attend Ivy-Plus colleges within each parental income ventile remains fixed at the level observed for the 1980 cohort, thereby isolating the impacts of national trends in income inequality (holding fixed colleges' selection of students from that distribution).”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In the sample period, Pell eligibility required an Expected Family Contribution below 95% of the Maximum Pell Grant, so increases in the Maximum Pell Grant expanded both award size and the eligible set.

    “In our sample period, students are eligible for a Pell Grant if their EFC is less than 95% of the Maximum Pell Grant.66 As a result, increases in the Maximum Pell Grant increase both the size of Pell award for any given eligible student and also the set of students who are eligible.”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Congress changed both the Maximum Pell Grant and the Expected Family Contribution formula over time, with Maximum Pell Grant changes being most consequential.

    “Congress has changed both the Maximum Pell Grant and the EFC formula over time, although the changes to the Maximum Pell Grant have been most consequential.”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Every Asian student reaches the top income quintile and every non-Asian student does not.

    “assuming that every Asian student reaches the top quintile whereas every non-Asian student does not”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The distribution of income for Asians relative to other individuals is stable across cohorts.

    “Assuming that the distribution of income for Asians (relative to other individuals) is stable across cohorts”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The intergenerational persistence of income is weakly positive.

    “and that the intergenerational persistence of income is weakly positive”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The share of Asian students at each college does not vary across income quintiles.

    “we make the conservative assumption that the share of Asian students at each college does not vary across income quintiles”

  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Students who pay no tuition and receive no federal aid are rare.

    “The data would not include students who pay no tuition and receive no federal aid, but such cases are rare.”

  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The national Pell-eligibility rate within each AGI bin is assumed to match the rate within the same bin at Ivy-Plus colleges.

    “This approach assumes that the observed fraction of students within each AGI bin that are Pell-eligible nationally is similar to the fraction within each bin at Ivy-Plus colleges.”
    “supporting our simplifying assumption that the fraction of students who are Pell-eligible within each income bin at Ivy-Plus colleges is very similar to that nationally.”
38 of 38

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?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • The segregation benchmark is called both a median and a 25th percentile

    Minor

    The median is the 50th percentile, not the 25th percentile. The text assigns both labels to the same reported benchmark.

  • Table III notes reverse the household-income outcomes in columns 5 and 7

    Minor

    The discussion says column 5 uses household earnings and column 7 uses household income including capital income. The table notes instead assign adjusted gross income to column 5 and household wage plus self-employment earnings to column 7.

  • Two definitions are given for college assignment in the 1978-cohort figure

    Minor

    The methods discussion assigns each child to the college attended most frequently across 1999 and 2000. The figure notes instead say assignment uses the college attended at age 22, in 2000; these rules can assign different colleges.

3 of 3

Citations

Cites

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Show all 37 references

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [10]10. Dale, S. and A. B. Krueger (2002). Estimating the payoff to attending a more selective college. Quarterly Journal of Economics 4, 1491-1527.

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Metadata

Authors
Chetty, R., Friedman, J., Saez, E., Turner, N., & Yagan, D.
Affiliations
United States Department of the Treasury (US)
ORCID
Venue
National Bureau of Economic Research
Publisher
National Bureau of Economic Research
Published
2017-07
DOI
10.3386/w23618
OpenAlex
W2739137144
Semantic Scholar
21364face3aa74b5a8391d3830caf4b503cc7214
Cited by
632
References
37
Citations by year
2026: 35 · 2025: 47 · 2024: 63 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 93 · 2021: 106 · 2020: 101 · 2019: 53 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 22
Type
report
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • National Bureau of Economic Research (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • National Bureau of Economic Research (submittedVersion)
  • VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
  • Sage Foundation
  • U.S. Department of the Treasury
  • Laura and John Arnold Foundation
  • Washington Center for Equitable Growth
  • University of California, Davis
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
  • Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
  • Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
Keywords
intergenerational income mobility, college attendance, college selectivity, low-income students, parental income, earnings outcomes, public universities, upward mobility

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