Are All "Adolescent Econometricians" Created Equal? Racial, Class, and Gender Differences in College Enrollment

Abstract

To explain whether high school graduates enroll in college, human capital theory suggests that youths act as adolescent econometricians, assessing the added value of education in terms of their expected income returns to schooling. Although there is some truth to this explanation, the application of the theory is often limited because researchers have ignored important racial, class, and gender differences in economic and educational arenas. This study used data from High School and Beyond to examine whether economic conditions similarly influence the postsecondary enrollment of adolescents from distinct groups. The results indicate that the effect of income returns varies systematically by race, class, gender, and cognitive skills; the college enrollment of white men from lower socioeconomic origins with lower cognitive skills is the most consistent with human capital predictions. Thus, membership in different groups in the stratification hierarchy importantly alters the calculations and decisions made by adolescent econometricians