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Ability, Not Heritage: Why Expanding University Access Often Fails to Narrow Intergenerational Educational Gaps

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Many countries have established new local colleges to increase access to education for disadvantaged populations. However, many of these expansions have not reduced educational inequality. Drawing on evidence from a large-scale college expansion initiative, we find that increased college availability did not lead to a differential increase in attendance among students from parents with less education. Rather, the expanded access primarily benefited students with marginal academic ability. These results suggest that higher education enrollment is largely determined by inherent scholastic ability and that the expansion of higher education tends to attract students at the upper margin of this ability distribution.

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  • Åstebro, Thomas & Hällerfors, Henrik & Bergh, Andreas & Tåg, Joacim, 2025. "Ability, Not Heritage: Why Expanding University Access Often Fails to Narrow Intergenerational Educational Gaps," Working Paper Series 1538, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1538
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    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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