Increasing Inequality in Parent Incomes and Children's Schooling.

ABSTRACT: Income inequality and the achievement test score gap between high- and low-income children increased dramatically in the United States beginning in the 1970s. This article investigates the demographic (family income, mother's education, family size, two-parent family structure, and age of mother at birth) underpinnings of the growing income-based gap in schooling using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Across 31 cohorts, we find that increases in the income gap between high- and low-income children account for approximately three-quarters of the increasing gap in completed schooling, one-half of the gap in college attendance, and one-fifth of the gap in college graduation. We find no consistent evidence of increases in the estimated associations between parental income and chil

SUBMITTER: Duncan GJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5693619 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature