Perceived and Ideal Inequality in University Endowments in the United States.

ABSTRACT: Whether and which university to attend are among the most financially consequential choices most people make. Universities with relatively larger endowments can offer better education experiences, which can drive inequality in students' subsequent outcomes. We first explore three interrelated questions: the current educational inequality across U.S. universities, people's perceptions of this inequality, and their desired inequality. Educational inequality is large: the top 20% of universities have 80% of the total university endowment wealth while the bottom 20% have around 1%. Studies 1 to 3 demonstrated that people underestimate university endowment inequality and desire more equality. These perceptions and ideals were mostly unaffected by contextual factors (e.g., salience of endowment

SUBMITTER: Day MV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10320709 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature