Social scientists have long pointed to economic inequality as a prognosis for lowered social mobility, given the rate that students from low-income communities drop out of high school. But until now, researchers have been unable to establish the mechanisms that drive that correlation.
A new paper presented by the Brookings Institute Thursday ties income inequality to reduced rates of upward mobility using empirical data, specifically examining the role of students’ perception of their potential future success in affecting their actual success.
Titled “Income Inequality, Social Mobility, and the Decision to Drop Out Of High School,” the research by Brookings fellow and University of Maryland economics professor Melissa Kearney and Wellesley economics professor Phillip Levine debunks the common economic conception that inequality inspires those in the lower-income brackets to try harder in achieving upward mobility.
[For more of this story, written by Cathaleen Chen, go to http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/E...school-dropout-rates]
Comments (0)