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The Demographics of Wealth 2018, Essay No. 1: The Financial Returns from College across Generations: Large but Unequal


Abstract: This essay explores the connections between a person's level of completed education and measures of his or her family's financial well-being, including income and wealth. For simplicity, we examine two discrete groups—families headed by someone who has completed a four-year college degree or higher ("college grads") and those without a college graduate head ("nongrads"). This essay shows that inherited demographic characteristics significantly influence the expected income and wealth outcomes associated with one's own education. These characteristics include birth year (and hence age at the time of the survey), race or ethnicity and parents' education level.

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Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Community Development Publications and Reports

Publication Date: 2018-02

Pages: 26 pages