The Changing Consequences of Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Using nationally representative data files from 1970s and 1990s college attendees, we find that in the 1970s matriculation at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) was associated with higher wages and an increased probability of graduation, relative to attending a traditionally white...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fryer, Roland G., Greenstone, Michael
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Economic Association 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/64654
Description
Summary:Using nationally representative data files from 1970s and 1990s college attendees, we find that in the 1970s matriculation at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) was associated with higher wages and an increased probability of graduation, relative to attending a traditionally white institution. By the 1990s, there is a wage penalty resulting in a 20 percent decline in the relative wages of HBCU graduates between the two decades. There is modest support for the possibility that the relative decline in wages associated with HBCU matriculation is partially due to improvements in TWIs' effectiveness at educating blacks.