According to a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, lower-income students get less of a boost to their earnings potential than they once did. The catalyst to this decline can be attributed to a shift in lower-income college students’ enrollment at research universities and study fields with high returns which ultimately impacts their long-term earning potential. Colleges historically attended by lower-income students such as teaching-oriented public universities, have experienced declines in “funding, retention, and economic value since 1960.” Lower-income students now receive less than half the earnings boost from college as their higher-income peers and currently have a 5-percentage income gap.
