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Birth order and the decline in college completion among the baby boom generation
Author(s) -
Handy Christopher,
Shester Katharine L.
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/ecin.13109
Subject(s) - baby boom , birth order , order (exchange) , demography , boom , economics , demographic economics , population , sociology , finance , engineering , environmental engineering
We show that changes in birth order during the U.S. baby boom can explain a substantial share of the decline and recovery in college completion among cohorts born between 1946 and 1974. Combining birth order effects estimated using the Health and Retirement Survey and birth order data from Vital Statistics, we estimate that changes in birth order can explain about 20% of the decline in white male college completion rates among the 1946–60 cohorts, and about one third of the rebound among the 1960–74 cohorts.