Higher Education and Local Educational Attainment: Evidence from the Establishment of US Colleges

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Russell, Lauren C.; Yu, Lei; Andrews, Michael J.
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01214
• 发表日期: 2024-07
• 页码: 1146-1156
• 关键词: returns

摘要

We investigate how the presence of a college affects local educational attainment. As counterfactuals for current college locations, we use historical runner-up locations that were strongly considered to become college sites but were ultimately not chosen. We find that winning counties today have college degree attainment rates 56% higher than runner-up counties and more private-sector employment in human-capital-intensive industries. These effects are not driven primarily by recent in-migration of educated adults, and alternative public investments did not have similar effects on local educational attainment. The results indicate that colleges played an important role in shaping long-run local outcomes.