Historical Place-Based Investments and Contemporary Economic Mobility and Inequality: Impacts of University Establishment

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RussellAndrews2025UniversityEstablishment.pdf (3.5 MB)

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https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/web.sas.upenn.edu/dist/0/610/files/2025/04/Russell_Andrews_2025_University_Establishment_and_Economic_Mobility.pdf

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http://hdl.handle.net/11603/38808

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UMBC Faculty Collection
UMBC Economics Department

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Date

2025-04-30

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journal articles
preprints
Text

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Subjects

contemporary county-level
site-selection natural experiments
hollowing-out
economic mobility
historic university establishment

Abstract

We explore how historic university establishment has impacted contemporary county-level economic mobility and inequality outcomes using site-selection natural experiments. We find that universities have led to greater mid-life upward intergenerational income mobility and more income inequality. We highlight five channels through which these effects operate: sorting of highachieving households into university counties; a “hollowing-out” of local labor markets which has provided opportunities to achieve top incomes as well as increased inequality; increased educational attainment across the income distribution, greater innovative activity, and higher levels of social capital.