Emerging Trends in The Social and Behavioral Sciences

Enduring Effects of Education

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Enduring Effects of Education

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Enduring Effects of Education
MATTHEW CURRY and JENNIE E. BRAND

Abstract
Social scientists have found strong and persistent causal effects of education
on various outcomes over the life course, even after using various methods to
control for preexisting selection into educational treatments. Research suggests
that educational attainment is an important causal factor in determining labor
market outcomes, social status, physical and mental health, marriage and fertility,
civic participation, and social attitudes. As education plays a central role in the
causal processes of so many outcomes of interest, understanding the effects of
education is a primary concern to social scientists. The effects of education are
complex and vary across demographic groups, appearing greatest for marginal
students. Furthermore, after controlling for individual educational attainment,
aggregate levels of education can affect economic and noneconomic outcomes at
both the aggregate and individual levels. Building on the literature on the effects
of education, we suggest promising areas for future research, including assessing
effect heterogeneity across individual and contextual characteristics; rigorously
identifying and testing causal pathways and mechanisms that link education to
associated outcomes; and attending to equilibrium effects, where aggregate levels
of education may influence the relationship between individual education and a
variety of individual outcomes.

INTRODUCTION
Education is a fundamental explanatory variable in contemporary sociology, occupying a pivotal role in the causal processes that determine important social phenomena. Early work in this area was mainly concerned with
education’s effect on social status and labor market outcomes (Becker, 1962;
Blau & Duncan, 1967; Mincer, 1958). While much of that research continues
today, scholars have also investigated how educational attainment impacts
noneconomic outcomes such as health, family, social participation, and attitudes. These effects remain significant after applying various methods to
control for selection bias. More recently, social scientists have worked to disaggregate average effects of individual educational attainment on individual
outcomes by investigating effect heterogeneity using new methodologies.
Another trend in research on education has attended to the estimation of
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

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causal effects of aggregate levels of education on both group outcomes, such
as economic growth, and individual outcomes, such as wages. In the following, we outline foundational research on the enduring effects of education,
followed by a review of innovative current research, and conclude with directions for future work. Most of our discussion focuses on the US context.
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
Over the past century, the effects of educational attainment in the United
States have not only endured but also grown in strength. The association
between education and labor market outcomes has increased since the
early 1970s, with the gap in average earnings between high school and
college graduates doubling over the past 40 years (Fischer & Hout, 2006;
Goldin & Katz, 2009). Education’s effects on noneconomic outcomes have
also increased. Rising rates of educational homogamy suggest that education plays an increasing role in family formation (Schwartz & Mare, 2005).
Widening educational disparities in mortality and morbidity also suggest
increasing health effects of educational attainment (Meara, Richards, &
Cutler, 2008). Taken together, these trends suggest the substantial, and
rising, effects of educational attainment on a range of outcomes throughout
the life course.
ECONOMIC EFFECTS
An extensive body of literature has shown that education has strong and
persistent economic effects over the life course. The most studied effects
of education deal with individual economic outcomes, such as earnings,
employment, and occupation. Economists and sociologists have found
strong positive effects of education on earnings (see Card, 1999 and Hout,
2012 for reviews). Questioning whether the effect of education on earnings
is indeed causal, that is, whether attributes such as mental ability and work
habits bias the observed association between higher education and higher
earnings, some scholars have turned to instrumental variable regressions.
Angrist and Krueger (1991, 1992), however, found larger, rather than smaller,
effects of education using instrumental variable methods relative to OLS
estimates, potentially indicating effect heterogeneity.
Research on the effects of education has also investigated the link between
education and employment. The employment patterns of college graduates
indicate greater stability than those of noncollege graduates, especially
in economic recessions (Farber, 2003). The likelihood and consequences
of experiencing job displacement also vary by education. After experiencing a job displacement, workers with less education have higher rates

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of unemployment and work fewer hours than more educated workers,
although education’s protective effect against job loss has weakened in the
most recent recessions (Farber, 2003).
The status attainment tradition illustrated that education has direct,
indirect, short- and long-term positive influences on occupational status.
Blau and Duncan (1967) quantified education’s effect on occupational status
after controlling for socioeconomic background, finding that education
increased the occupational status of men’s jobs. The Wisconsin model of
status attainment (Sewell, Haller, & Portes, 1969) expanded status attainment research by including social psychological mechanisms that mediated
the relationships between socioeconomic background, education, and
socioeconomic outcomes. Their findings confirmed the strong direct effect
of educational attainment on later occupational status.
NONECONOMIC EFFECTS
While many view education primarily as a pathway toward labor market
success, there is also a large literature on how educational attainment affects
noneconomic outcomes. In fact, the original goals of mass education had
little to do with individual economic returns, and were instead concerned
with the philosophical, moral, and civic benefits education was thought
to impart (Kohlberg, 1966). In the following, we review foundational
research on how education affects a few of these life outcomes, including
marriage and fertility, physical and mental health, social participation, and
attitudes.
Education affects marriage and divorce rates, choices of marital partners,
and fertility. College graduates are on average more likely to get married
and stay married than others, and they are more likely to have and raise
their children in marriage (Musick, Brand, & Davis, 2012). Moreover,
educational homogamy—where similarly educated people marry one
another—has increased since the 1960s (Mare, 1991), and this patterning
results in fewer divorces (Schwartz, 2010). There is also a well-documented
negative association between education and fertility, with educated women
more likely to delay their first birth and have fewer children overall
(Rindfuss, Morgan, & Offutt, 1996). This discrepancy may emerge because
of differences in unplanned births instead of differences in opportunity
costs or child-bearing desires (Musick, England, Edgington, & Kangas,
2009).
Education is also positively associated with health (Kitagawa, 1973).
Even after controlling for income and employment, education reduces
mortality and has been increasing in importance since the 1960s. Education
affects health through its association with work and economic conditions

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(employment, income, work fulfillment), social-psychological resources
(sense of control, social support), and health lifestyle (smoking, exercise,
preventative care) (see Ross & Wu, 1995 for a review). The most critical role
that education plays in decreasing mortality may be its effect on delaying
the onset of illness. Following the onset of disease, education mainly works
through income to slow its progression (Herd, Goesling, & House, 2007).
Education also protects against stress and depression by providing people
with a sense of control over their lives, by teaching skills that prove valuable,
such as how to seek out and synthesize information, and by improving
their work experiences (Chevalier & Feinstein, 2006). Nonetheless, the
causal direction between education and health is often unclear, as those
predisposed to better health may obtain more education. Education may
also have conflicting effects on health since it might correlate with both
negative (e.g., high stress occupations) and positive (e.g., income) factors.
While the literature generally suggests that educational attainment improves
individual physical and mental health, the complexity of this relationship
requires further study.
Education also increases civic participation, including voting and participating in voluntary organizations, even after adjustments are made for
factors influencing selection into higher education (Milligan, Moretti, & Oreopoulos, 2004; Nie, 1996; Putnam, 2001). Several mechanisms may account
for this association. First, education may provide individuals with resources
that facilitate civic participation, such as cognitive ability, knowledge, and
privileged social positions. Second, educational institutions may socialize
students to adopt civic norms and responsibilities (see Brand, 2010 for a
review). Third, civic groups may purposefully recruit educated members to
increase the efficacy of their efforts (Hauser, 2000). Finally, education might
increase civic participation indirectly through income and occupational
status.
Finally, education is positively associated with liberal social attitudes,
such as support for civil liberties (Hyman, 1979), political tolerance (Bobo &
Licari, 1989), and tolerance of minorities (Phelan, Link, Stueve, & Moore,
1995). There are three dominant explanations for the observed correlation
between liberal social attitudes and education: development, where education enhances cognitive growth, leading to pro-social attitudes; socialization,
where schools socialize students into the “official institutional culture”; and
ideological refinement, where liberalism is confined to issues that serve the
educated group’s self-interest. While education was associated with conservative economic views, suggesting evidence for the socialization hypothesis,
many of the mechanisms linking education and political attitudes remain
unidentified (Phelan et al., 1995).

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HORIZONTAL DIFFERENTIATION
Although most research on the effects of education has focused on vertical
stratification, or the amount of education one obtains, there is also a growing
literature investigating horizontal educational stratification, or differences in
institutional quality, institutional type (e.g., 2-year college vs 4-year college),
or field of study.
There is conflicting evidence regarding the effects of college quality.
Although early research on the topic concluded that attending an elite
college yielded an increased economic return, recent research has found
few effects of elite colleges on career outcomes, but positive effects on
the probability of completing college and obtaining an advanced degree
(Brand & Halaby, 2006; Dale & Krueger, 2002). There is more consensus on
the effects of attending 2-year colleges, with those beginning at community
colleges earning fewer bachelor’s degrees and less income net of background
and aspirations (Dougherty, 1994). While students on average fare better
at 4-year universities, community colleges increased overall educational
attainment by widening access to higher education (Rouse, 1995). The
estimated effect of community college attendance depends crucially on
the assumed counterfactual state—whether community college students
are compared to those who do not attend college or those who attend
4-year colleges (Brand, Pfeffer, & Goldrick-Rab, 2012). Finally, college major
has also been shown to affect economic outcomes. Students majoring in
business, math/engineering, and the natural sciences see greater returns
to education after controlling for student background. Differential effects
by field of study may also help to explain some of the differential returns
to education by different sociodemographic groups (Gerber & Cheung,
2008).
DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS BY DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
Research has also demonstrated differences in effects of college by individual
characteristics such as race and gender. In the 1960s, black men received
lower returns to education than white men. However, after controlling for
work experience and cognitive ability, blacks and Hispanics experienced
higher returns to education than whites in recent decades (Card, 1999), suggesting that minorities are penalized more than whites for being uneducated
(Averett & Dalessandro, 2001). There is also a significant interaction between
gender and education on wages (review in Gerber & Cheung, 2008), such
that women receive lower returns to their educational investment. Much
of the wage differential is mediated through occupational and educational
segregation. Women are overrepresented in academic majors that produce

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low returns and in lower-paying occupations. After adjusting for field specialization, large residual effects of both race and gender remain, suggesting
labor market discrimination.
NEW RESEARCH
Education is a central research topic across the social and behavioral sciences,
and much innovative work is being conducted. In this essay, we identify two
themes in current research that suggest promising directions for the future
of the field. First, work investigating heterogeneous effects of education has
benefited from recent methodological innovation and access to high quality longitudinal data. This research has disaggregated average effects, lending insight into both effect heterogeneity and selection processes. Second,
we highlight how aggregate trends in education affect both economic and
noneconomic outcomes net of individual education.
HETEROGENEOUS EFFECTS
There are two types of selection bias using observational data of the effects of
education (Brand & Xie, 2010). The first type is due to heterogeneity in preexisting conditions, or attributes that are associated with both education and
its various outcomes, which we have discussed above as a possible explanation for the observed associations between education and each outcome. The
second type of selection bias is due to heterogeneity in education effects, or
systematic differences between individuals who do and do not attain a college education in the causal effect of education on various outcomes. Brand
and Xie (2010)use a new approach to examine college effect heterogeneity,
in which they estimate effects of college by propensity score (i.e., probability
of college completion based on observed covariates) strata and evaluate the
trend in effects in a multilevel model. Using this approach, they found that
the return to college completion is greatest for those least likely to obtain it, a
pattern they term “negative selection.” This stands in contrast to some previous work based on rational choice theory which claimed that students who
benefit most from college were most likely to attend (Willis & Rosen, 1979),
and some recent work using instrumental variables likewise suggesting positive selection (Carneiro, Heckman, & Vytlacil, 2011). The pattern of negative
selection is, however, consistent with work suggesting that students from
disadvantaged racial groups experience greater returns to college and with
work using instrumental variables suggesting greater returns to students on
the margin of school continuation (Card, 2001).
Extensions of this work have found negative selection to be a somewhat
general pattern, with college affecting a range of individual outcomes most

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strongly for those least likely to receive a college education. For example, the
effects of college on fertility and civic participation were greatest for those
who were least likely to attend (Brand, 2010; Brand & Davis, 2011). Recent
research has also disaggregated effects of education by decomposing outcomes. For example, Miech et al. (2011) found that the effect of education on
mortality is dynamic, increasing in importance for some causes of death and
decreasing for others over time.
EFFECTS OF AGGREGATE EDUCATION
Another trend in educational research investigates how aggregate levels
of education affect both individual and aggregate outcomes. For example,
increasing the average educational attainment in a country by one year
increased the average output of workers by 5–15% (Topel, 1999). Individuals
living in neighborhoods with high levels of education also have better health
net of individual education because those areas have better infrastructure
(e.g., clinics, parks, and grocery stores), cause less stress, provide social
support, and have prevailing attitudes that encourage healthy behavior
(Pickett & Pearl, 2001). These “societal returns” to education are also heterogeneous; although all individuals benefit from educated societies, the
less-educated benefit most from rising average levels of education (Moretti,
2004).
KEY ISSUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
The new lines of research we highlight above elaborate on the traditional
understanding of education’s effects by either disaggregating average individual effects of education or looking at how group-level education affects
a variety of outcomes. Building from this work, we identify three broad
issues that future work should address. First, scholars should continue to
disaggregate effects of education by individual and contextual characteristics. Second, scholars should systematically identify causal mechanisms that
link education to the outcomes discussed above, rigorously attending to
the causal processes underlying each of the proposed mechanisms. Finally,
research should attend to distributional, or equilibrium, effects, where
aggregate levels of education may affect the relationship between individual
education and outcomes.
DISAGGREGATING AVERAGE EFFECTS
Future research should continue to disaggregate effects of education in several ways. First, it should continue to investigate patterns of effect heterogeneity by individual characteristics. Second, it should specify variation in

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effects by contextual conditions. Third, researchers should continue investigating effects of qualitative differences in education, such as field of study
and institutional quality.
Future work in effect heterogeneity could expand to investigate a range
of both treatments and outcomes. For example, researchers might use
propensity score methods to investigate heterogeneous returns to secondary
or graduate school, or to different fields of study. They might also examine
the heterogeneous effects of education on outcomes such as health or
prosocial attitudes. Researchers should also report how different methodological strategies affect estimates of the effects of education. For example,
while early models of heterogeneous effects assumed a linear form, recent
innovations allow those assumptions to be relaxed (Xie, Brand, & Jann,
2012). There are also different methods of matching or stratifying the sample
following propensity score estimation. The consequences of these decisions
on estimates of treatment effects should be fully explored as these methods
mature, and compared to heterogeneous effect estimates obtained using
instrumental variables.
Another way to disaggregate effects of education is to assess how effects
differ across time, place, and other contexts. Average effects of education
should also be disaggregated across economic contexts (i.e., recessions vs
expansions). College graduates who graduate during economic contractions earn significantly lower wages for many years compared to college
graduates who graduate during expansions (Kahn, 2010), but little is known
about how the effects of education vary across economic conditions. While
new college graduates were underemployed during the Great Recession,
the worst effects were felt by the least educated segments of the population (Hout, Levanon, & Burak, 2011). However, these analyses have
not adequately controlled for selection; establishing rigorous estimates of
how causal effects of education change with the macroeconomic context is
important to establishing how structural factors interact with individual
education. Comparative work may also allow researchers to consider
how inequality and the welfare system impact who benefits most from
education.
Future research should also disaggregate average effects of education by
continuing to research horizontal differentiation in education. Although
this area of research is not new, there is relatively less consensus on the
effects of qualitative differences in education, particularly with regard to
college quality. However, as educational attainment rises, one way that
social inequalities might persist is through horizontal differentiation, such
as school quality or field of study. Research should also continue to explore
the noneconomic effects of college quality, and how these effects vary across
the population of elite college goers. Research on horizontal differences in

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education should also continue to investigate trends in how different fields
of study are rewarded in the labor market and on noneconomic axes, such
as health. For example, while labor market discrepancies by college major
are well documented, it is unclear if similar effects exist for noneconomic
outcomes. This research should also attend to how these effects differ by
gender, race, and other subgroups of the population.
IDENTIFYING CAUSAL MECHANISMS
A second avenue for future research is to continue identifying mechanisms
that link education to the outcomes discussed above. While many of the
mechanisms for labor market outcomes have been studied, the mechanisms
for noneconomic outcomes are less clear. However, some recent examples
of identifying causal mechanisms could guide future work in this area. For
example, the protective effect of education on divorce is primarily mediated
through labor market experiences, suggesting cultural factors do not primarily facilitate the relationship between education and divorce (Harknett &
Kuperberg, 2011). A subject that might benefit from this type of inquiry is
the association between education and health. While education is negatively
correlated with dementia and Alzheimer’s, mechanisms explaining this
relationship remain underdeveloped. Education may affect resistance to
Alzheimer’s by positively impacting brain functioning throughout the
life course, or by impacting social factors, such as exposure to unhealthy
working conditions, access to quality healthcare, having stable family lives,
or participating actively in social life.
Researchers should also explore the mechanisms that explain effect heterogeneity. For example, it remains unclear why the pattern of negative selection
exists in its current form for economic outcomes. It could be that advantaged
individuals who do not persist in formal schooling have access to social networks that facilitate labor market success. Alternatively, low propensity college goers may be more economically motivated than students from wealthy
backgrounds.
Methodologists have long warned that conditioning on an intermediate
variable that has been affected by the treatment can lead to endogenous selection bias. While we believe future work should attend to the mechanisms
linking education to a variety of outcomes, we caution that the effects of
mediators on later outcomes, often estimated by simply including such variables in expanded regression models, seldom warrant causal interpretations
and can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding both the intermediary and
main effects. Rather, each potential mechanism’s effect on the outcome of
interest requires focused attention to that causal process.

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DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS
Finally, social scientists should augment the research on individual effects of
education by taking into account distributional effects, where effects of education on individuals depend on the population. Individuals are not atomized. As a greater proportion of the population attain higher levels of college,
for example, certain benefits of education might decline or rise for any given
individual. For example, one way that education improves health is through
neighborhood context. Educated people tend to live in areas that facilitate
better health (e.g., through easy access to healthy foods). If neighborhood levels of educational attainment increase, less-educated people in these neighborhoods still reap the benefits of education on health simply by living in
educated neighborhoods. Therefore, the individual effects of education on
health may decrease because the positive effects of higher aggregate education accrue to the less educated. Conversely, if rising overall levels of education cause increased residential segregation by education, the measured
effect of education may increase because less-educated individuals may be
increasingly isolated in neighborhoods that cause worse health. Considering
how the distribution of educational attainment across families may inhibit or
exacerbate its effects is a complex, yet important, avenue of future research.
CONCLUSION
Research on the effects of education is a strong and vibrant area of study.
Education is an invaluable explanatory variable for social scientists because
it contributes to a diverse range of important outcomes. The weight of empirical evidence suggests that educational effects are more than just artifacts
of selection; education is a causal factor in many economic (e.g., employment, income, and occupational status) and noneconomic (e.g., marriage,
fertility, health, and civic engagement) outcomes. Furthermore, education’s
causal effects persist throughout the life course and have generally grown
over time, although broad generalizations may oversimplify some variability. Recent work implements sophisticated methodology to better estimate
causal effects and to parse out effect heterogeneity. However, many of the
patterns of heterogeneous effects of education, variability in effects by contextual conditions, and mechanisms that explain these effects remain elusive,
providing challenging yet rewarding areas for future research. Researchers
in this area should also investigate how the changing level and distribution
of education affects both collective and individual returns to education. Education has been a central concern for social scientists because it affects a wide
range of outcomes over the life course. As new research continues to identify
important effects of education, building on this tradition is imperative to a
bettering understanding of the social world.

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MATTHEW CURRY SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Matthew Curry is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of
California—Los Angeles and a student affiliate at the California Center for
Population Research (CCPR). His areas of interest include social stratification and education, and his dissertation uses panel data to assess the causal
effects of economic recessions on returns to higher education in the United
States.
JENNIE E. BRAND SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Jennie E. Brand is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of
California—Los Angeles and Associate Director of the California Center
for Population Research (CCPR). Her research centers on inequality and its
implications for various outcomes that indicate life chances. This substantive
focus accompanies a methodological focus on causal inference and the application and innovation of statistical models for panel data. Current research

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

projects include evaluation of heterogeneity in the effects of education on
socioeconomic outcomes and the socioeconomic and social-psychological
consequences of disruptive events.
RELATED ESSAYS
Learning Across the Life Course (Sociology), Jutta Allmendinger and Marcel
Helbig
Economics of Early Education (Economics), W. Steven Barnett
Returns to Education in Different Labor Market Contexts (Sociology), Klaus
Schöemann and Rolf Becker
Shadow Education (Sociology), Soo-yong Byun and David P. Baker
Intergenerational Mobility (Economics), Steve N. Durlauf and Irina
Shaorshadze
Social Class and Parental Investment in Children (Sociology), Anne H.
Gauthier
Education for Mobility or Status Reproduction? (Sociology), Karyn Lacy
Gender Inequality in Educational Attainment (Sociology), Anne McDaniel
and Claudia Buchmann
Curriculum as a Site of Political and Cultural Conflict (Sociology), Fabio
Rojas
Education in an Open Informational World (Educ), Marlene Scardamalia
and Carl Bereiter
Higher Education: A Field in Ferment (Sociology), W. Richard Scott
Impact of Limited Education on Employment Prospects in Advanced
Economies (Sociology), Heike Solga
Institutional Contexts for Socioeconomic Effects on Schooling Outcomes
(Sociology), Herman G. van de Werfhorst



Enduring Effects of Education
MATTHEW CURRY and JENNIE E. BRAND

Abstract
Social scientists have found strong and persistent causal effects of education
on various outcomes over the life course, even after using various methods to
control for preexisting selection into educational treatments. Research suggests
that educational attainment is an important causal factor in determining labor
market outcomes, social status, physical and mental health, marriage and fertility,
civic participation, and social attitudes. As education plays a central role in the
causal processes of so many outcomes of interest, understanding the effects of
education is a primary concern to social scientists. The effects of education are
complex and vary across demographic groups, appearing greatest for marginal
students. Furthermore, after controlling for individual educational attainment,
aggregate levels of education can affect economic and noneconomic outcomes at
both the aggregate and individual levels. Building on the literature on the effects
of education, we suggest promising areas for future research, including assessing
effect heterogeneity across individual and contextual characteristics; rigorously
identifying and testing causal pathways and mechanisms that link education to
associated outcomes; and attending to equilibrium effects, where aggregate levels
of education may influence the relationship between individual education and a
variety of individual outcomes.

INTRODUCTION
Education is a fundamental explanatory variable in contemporary sociology, occupying a pivotal role in the causal processes that determine important social phenomena. Early work in this area was mainly concerned with
education’s effect on social status and labor market outcomes (Becker, 1962;
Blau & Duncan, 1967; Mincer, 1958). While much of that research continues
today, scholars have also investigated how educational attainment impacts
noneconomic outcomes such as health, family, social participation, and attitudes. These effects remain significant after applying various methods to
control for selection bias. More recently, social scientists have worked to disaggregate average effects of individual educational attainment on individual
outcomes by investigating effect heterogeneity using new methodologies.
Another trend in research on education has attended to the estimation of
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

1

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

causal effects of aggregate levels of education on both group outcomes, such
as economic growth, and individual outcomes, such as wages. In the following, we outline foundational research on the enduring effects of education,
followed by a review of innovative current research, and conclude with directions for future work. Most of our discussion focuses on the US context.
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
Over the past century, the effects of educational attainment in the United
States have not only endured but also grown in strength. The association
between education and labor market outcomes has increased since the
early 1970s, with the gap in average earnings between high school and
college graduates doubling over the past 40 years (Fischer & Hout, 2006;
Goldin & Katz, 2009). Education’s effects on noneconomic outcomes have
also increased. Rising rates of educational homogamy suggest that education plays an increasing role in family formation (Schwartz & Mare, 2005).
Widening educational disparities in mortality and morbidity also suggest
increasing health effects of educational attainment (Meara, Richards, &
Cutler, 2008). Taken together, these trends suggest the substantial, and
rising, effects of educational attainment on a range of outcomes throughout
the life course.
ECONOMIC EFFECTS
An extensive body of literature has shown that education has strong and
persistent economic effects over the life course. The most studied effects
of education deal with individual economic outcomes, such as earnings,
employment, and occupation. Economists and sociologists have found
strong positive effects of education on earnings (see Card, 1999 and Hout,
2012 for reviews). Questioning whether the effect of education on earnings
is indeed causal, that is, whether attributes such as mental ability and work
habits bias the observed association between higher education and higher
earnings, some scholars have turned to instrumental variable regressions.
Angrist and Krueger (1991, 1992), however, found larger, rather than smaller,
effects of education using instrumental variable methods relative to OLS
estimates, potentially indicating effect heterogeneity.
Research on the effects of education has also investigated the link between
education and employment. The employment patterns of college graduates
indicate greater stability than those of noncollege graduates, especially
in economic recessions (Farber, 2003). The likelihood and consequences
of experiencing job displacement also vary by education. After experiencing a job displacement, workers with less education have higher rates

Enduring Effects of Education

3

of unemployment and work fewer hours than more educated workers,
although education’s protective effect against job loss has weakened in the
most recent recessions (Farber, 2003).
The status attainment tradition illustrated that education has direct,
indirect, short- and long-term positive influences on occupational status.
Blau and Duncan (1967) quantified education’s effect on occupational status
after controlling for socioeconomic background, finding that education
increased the occupational status of men’s jobs. The Wisconsin model of
status attainment (Sewell, Haller, & Portes, 1969) expanded status attainment research by including social psychological mechanisms that mediated
the relationships between socioeconomic background, education, and
socioeconomic outcomes. Their findings confirmed the strong direct effect
of educational attainment on later occupational status.
NONECONOMIC EFFECTS
While many view education primarily as a pathway toward labor market
success, there is also a large literature on how educational attainment affects
noneconomic outcomes. In fact, the original goals of mass education had
little to do with individual economic returns, and were instead concerned
with the philosophical, moral, and civic benefits education was thought
to impart (Kohlberg, 1966). In the following, we review foundational
research on how education affects a few of these life outcomes, including
marriage and fertility, physical and mental health, social participation, and
attitudes.
Education affects marriage and divorce rates, choices of marital partners,
and fertility. College graduates are on average more likely to get married
and stay married than others, and they are more likely to have and raise
their children in marriage (Musick, Brand, & Davis, 2012). Moreover,
educational homogamy—where similarly educated people marry one
another—has increased since the 1960s (Mare, 1991), and this patterning
results in fewer divorces (Schwartz, 2010). There is also a well-documented
negative association between education and fertility, with educated women
more likely to delay their first birth and have fewer children overall
(Rindfuss, Morgan, & Offutt, 1996). This discrepancy may emerge because
of differences in unplanned births instead of differences in opportunity
costs or child-bearing desires (Musick, England, Edgington, & Kangas,
2009).
Education is also positively associated with health (Kitagawa, 1973).
Even after controlling for income and employment, education reduces
mortality and has been increasing in importance since the 1960s. Education
affects health through its association with work and economic conditions

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

(employment, income, work fulfillment), social-psychological resources
(sense of control, social support), and health lifestyle (smoking, exercise,
preventative care) (see Ross & Wu, 1995 for a review). The most critical role
that education plays in decreasing mortality may be its effect on delaying
the onset of illness. Following the onset of disease, education mainly works
through income to slow its progression (Herd, Goesling, & House, 2007).
Education also protects against stress and depression by providing people
with a sense of control over their lives, by teaching skills that prove valuable,
such as how to seek out and synthesize information, and by improving
their work experiences (Chevalier & Feinstein, 2006). Nonetheless, the
causal direction between education and health is often unclear, as those
predisposed to better health may obtain more education. Education may
also have conflicting effects on health since it might correlate with both
negative (e.g., high stress occupations) and positive (e.g., income) factors.
While the literature generally suggests that educational attainment improves
individual physical and mental health, the complexity of this relationship
requires further study.
Education also increases civic participation, including voting and participating in voluntary organizations, even after adjustments are made for
factors influencing selection into higher education (Milligan, Moretti, & Oreopoulos, 2004; Nie, 1996; Putnam, 2001). Several mechanisms may account
for this association. First, education may provide individuals with resources
that facilitate civic participation, such as cognitive ability, knowledge, and
privileged social positions. Second, educational institutions may socialize
students to adopt civic norms and responsibilities (see Brand, 2010 for a
review). Third, civic groups may purposefully recruit educated members to
increase the efficacy of their efforts (Hauser, 2000). Finally, education might
increase civic participation indirectly through income and occupational
status.
Finally, education is positively associated with liberal social attitudes,
such as support for civil liberties (Hyman, 1979), political tolerance (Bobo &
Licari, 1989), and tolerance of minorities (Phelan, Link, Stueve, & Moore,
1995). There are three dominant explanations for the observed correlation
between liberal social attitudes and education: development, where education enhances cognitive growth, leading to pro-social attitudes; socialization,
where schools socialize students into the “official institutional culture”; and
ideological refinement, where liberalism is confined to issues that serve the
educated group’s self-interest. While education was associated with conservative economic views, suggesting evidence for the socialization hypothesis,
many of the mechanisms linking education and political attitudes remain
unidentified (Phelan et al., 1995).

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5

HORIZONTAL DIFFERENTIATION
Although most research on the effects of education has focused on vertical
stratification, or the amount of education one obtains, there is also a growing
literature investigating horizontal educational stratification, or differences in
institutional quality, institutional type (e.g., 2-year college vs 4-year college),
or field of study.
There is conflicting evidence regarding the effects of college quality.
Although early research on the topic concluded that attending an elite
college yielded an increased economic return, recent research has found
few effects of elite colleges on career outcomes, but positive effects on
the probability of completing college and obtaining an advanced degree
(Brand & Halaby, 2006; Dale & Krueger, 2002). There is more consensus on
the effects of attending 2-year colleges, with those beginning at community
colleges earning fewer bachelor’s degrees and less income net of background
and aspirations (Dougherty, 1994). While students on average fare better
at 4-year universities, community colleges increased overall educational
attainment by widening access to higher education (Rouse, 1995). The
estimated effect of community college attendance depends crucially on
the assumed counterfactual state—whether community college students
are compared to those who do not attend college or those who attend
4-year colleges (Brand, Pfeffer, & Goldrick-Rab, 2012). Finally, college major
has also been shown to affect economic outcomes. Students majoring in
business, math/engineering, and the natural sciences see greater returns
to education after controlling for student background. Differential effects
by field of study may also help to explain some of the differential returns
to education by different sociodemographic groups (Gerber & Cheung,
2008).
DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS BY DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
Research has also demonstrated differences in effects of college by individual
characteristics such as race and gender. In the 1960s, black men received
lower returns to education than white men. However, after controlling for
work experience and cognitive ability, blacks and Hispanics experienced
higher returns to education than whites in recent decades (Card, 1999), suggesting that minorities are penalized more than whites for being uneducated
(Averett & Dalessandro, 2001). There is also a significant interaction between
gender and education on wages (review in Gerber & Cheung, 2008), such
that women receive lower returns to their educational investment. Much
of the wage differential is mediated through occupational and educational
segregation. Women are overrepresented in academic majors that produce

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

low returns and in lower-paying occupations. After adjusting for field specialization, large residual effects of both race and gender remain, suggesting
labor market discrimination.
NEW RESEARCH
Education is a central research topic across the social and behavioral sciences,
and much innovative work is being conducted. In this essay, we identify two
themes in current research that suggest promising directions for the future
of the field. First, work investigating heterogeneous effects of education has
benefited from recent methodological innovation and access to high quality longitudinal data. This research has disaggregated average effects, lending insight into both effect heterogeneity and selection processes. Second,
we highlight how aggregate trends in education affect both economic and
noneconomic outcomes net of individual education.
HETEROGENEOUS EFFECTS
There are two types of selection bias using observational data of the effects of
education (Brand & Xie, 2010). The first type is due to heterogeneity in preexisting conditions, or attributes that are associated with both education and
its various outcomes, which we have discussed above as a possible explanation for the observed associations between education and each outcome. The
second type of selection bias is due to heterogeneity in education effects, or
systematic differences between individuals who do and do not attain a college education in the causal effect of education on various outcomes. Brand
and Xie (2010)use a new approach to examine college effect heterogeneity,
in which they estimate effects of college by propensity score (i.e., probability
of college completion based on observed covariates) strata and evaluate the
trend in effects in a multilevel model. Using this approach, they found that
the return to college completion is greatest for those least likely to obtain it, a
pattern they term “negative selection.” This stands in contrast to some previous work based on rational choice theory which claimed that students who
benefit most from college were most likely to attend (Willis & Rosen, 1979),
and some recent work using instrumental variables likewise suggesting positive selection (Carneiro, Heckman, & Vytlacil, 2011). The pattern of negative
selection is, however, consistent with work suggesting that students from
disadvantaged racial groups experience greater returns to college and with
work using instrumental variables suggesting greater returns to students on
the margin of school continuation (Card, 2001).
Extensions of this work have found negative selection to be a somewhat
general pattern, with college affecting a range of individual outcomes most

Enduring Effects of Education

7

strongly for those least likely to receive a college education. For example, the
effects of college on fertility and civic participation were greatest for those
who were least likely to attend (Brand, 2010; Brand & Davis, 2011). Recent
research has also disaggregated effects of education by decomposing outcomes. For example, Miech et al. (2011) found that the effect of education on
mortality is dynamic, increasing in importance for some causes of death and
decreasing for others over time.
EFFECTS OF AGGREGATE EDUCATION
Another trend in educational research investigates how aggregate levels
of education affect both individual and aggregate outcomes. For example,
increasing the average educational attainment in a country by one year
increased the average output of workers by 5–15% (Topel, 1999). Individuals
living in neighborhoods with high levels of education also have better health
net of individual education because those areas have better infrastructure
(e.g., clinics, parks, and grocery stores), cause less stress, provide social
support, and have prevailing attitudes that encourage healthy behavior
(Pickett & Pearl, 2001). These “societal returns” to education are also heterogeneous; although all individuals benefit from educated societies, the
less-educated benefit most from rising average levels of education (Moretti,
2004).
KEY ISSUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
The new lines of research we highlight above elaborate on the traditional
understanding of education’s effects by either disaggregating average individual effects of education or looking at how group-level education affects
a variety of outcomes. Building from this work, we identify three broad
issues that future work should address. First, scholars should continue to
disaggregate effects of education by individual and contextual characteristics. Second, scholars should systematically identify causal mechanisms that
link education to the outcomes discussed above, rigorously attending to
the causal processes underlying each of the proposed mechanisms. Finally,
research should attend to distributional, or equilibrium, effects, where
aggregate levels of education may affect the relationship between individual
education and outcomes.
DISAGGREGATING AVERAGE EFFECTS
Future research should continue to disaggregate effects of education in several ways. First, it should continue to investigate patterns of effect heterogeneity by individual characteristics. Second, it should specify variation in

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

effects by contextual conditions. Third, researchers should continue investigating effects of qualitative differences in education, such as field of study
and institutional quality.
Future work in effect heterogeneity could expand to investigate a range
of both treatments and outcomes. For example, researchers might use
propensity score methods to investigate heterogeneous returns to secondary
or graduate school, or to different fields of study. They might also examine
the heterogeneous effects of education on outcomes such as health or
prosocial attitudes. Researchers should also report how different methodological strategies affect estimates of the effects of education. For example,
while early models of heterogeneous effects assumed a linear form, recent
innovations allow those assumptions to be relaxed (Xie, Brand, & Jann,
2012). There are also different methods of matching or stratifying the sample
following propensity score estimation. The consequences of these decisions
on estimates of treatment effects should be fully explored as these methods
mature, and compared to heterogeneous effect estimates obtained using
instrumental variables.
Another way to disaggregate effects of education is to assess how effects
differ across time, place, and other contexts. Average effects of education
should also be disaggregated across economic contexts (i.e., recessions vs
expansions). College graduates who graduate during economic contractions earn significantly lower wages for many years compared to college
graduates who graduate during expansions (Kahn, 2010), but little is known
about how the effects of education vary across economic conditions. While
new college graduates were underemployed during the Great Recession,
the worst effects were felt by the least educated segments of the population (Hout, Levanon, & Burak, 2011). However, these analyses have
not adequately controlled for selection; establishing rigorous estimates of
how causal effects of education change with the macroeconomic context is
important to establishing how structural factors interact with individual
education. Comparative work may also allow researchers to consider
how inequality and the welfare system impact who benefits most from
education.
Future research should also disaggregate average effects of education by
continuing to research horizontal differentiation in education. Although
this area of research is not new, there is relatively less consensus on the
effects of qualitative differences in education, particularly with regard to
college quality. However, as educational attainment rises, one way that
social inequalities might persist is through horizontal differentiation, such
as school quality or field of study. Research should also continue to explore
the noneconomic effects of college quality, and how these effects vary across
the population of elite college goers. Research on horizontal differences in

Enduring Effects of Education

9

education should also continue to investigate trends in how different fields
of study are rewarded in the labor market and on noneconomic axes, such
as health. For example, while labor market discrepancies by college major
are well documented, it is unclear if similar effects exist for noneconomic
outcomes. This research should also attend to how these effects differ by
gender, race, and other subgroups of the population.
IDENTIFYING CAUSAL MECHANISMS
A second avenue for future research is to continue identifying mechanisms
that link education to the outcomes discussed above. While many of the
mechanisms for labor market outcomes have been studied, the mechanisms
for noneconomic outcomes are less clear. However, some recent examples
of identifying causal mechanisms could guide future work in this area. For
example, the protective effect of education on divorce is primarily mediated
through labor market experiences, suggesting cultural factors do not primarily facilitate the relationship between education and divorce (Harknett &
Kuperberg, 2011). A subject that might benefit from this type of inquiry is
the association between education and health. While education is negatively
correlated with dementia and Alzheimer’s, mechanisms explaining this
relationship remain underdeveloped. Education may affect resistance to
Alzheimer’s by positively impacting brain functioning throughout the
life course, or by impacting social factors, such as exposure to unhealthy
working conditions, access to quality healthcare, having stable family lives,
or participating actively in social life.
Researchers should also explore the mechanisms that explain effect heterogeneity. For example, it remains unclear why the pattern of negative selection
exists in its current form for economic outcomes. It could be that advantaged
individuals who do not persist in formal schooling have access to social networks that facilitate labor market success. Alternatively, low propensity college goers may be more economically motivated than students from wealthy
backgrounds.
Methodologists have long warned that conditioning on an intermediate
variable that has been affected by the treatment can lead to endogenous selection bias. While we believe future work should attend to the mechanisms
linking education to a variety of outcomes, we caution that the effects of
mediators on later outcomes, often estimated by simply including such variables in expanded regression models, seldom warrant causal interpretations
and can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding both the intermediary and
main effects. Rather, each potential mechanism’s effect on the outcome of
interest requires focused attention to that causal process.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS
Finally, social scientists should augment the research on individual effects of
education by taking into account distributional effects, where effects of education on individuals depend on the population. Individuals are not atomized. As a greater proportion of the population attain higher levels of college,
for example, certain benefits of education might decline or rise for any given
individual. For example, one way that education improves health is through
neighborhood context. Educated people tend to live in areas that facilitate
better health (e.g., through easy access to healthy foods). If neighborhood levels of educational attainment increase, less-educated people in these neighborhoods still reap the benefits of education on health simply by living in
educated neighborhoods. Therefore, the individual effects of education on
health may decrease because the positive effects of higher aggregate education accrue to the less educated. Conversely, if rising overall levels of education cause increased residential segregation by education, the measured
effect of education may increase because less-educated individuals may be
increasingly isolated in neighborhoods that cause worse health. Considering
how the distribution of educational attainment across families may inhibit or
exacerbate its effects is a complex, yet important, avenue of future research.
CONCLUSION
Research on the effects of education is a strong and vibrant area of study.
Education is an invaluable explanatory variable for social scientists because
it contributes to a diverse range of important outcomes. The weight of empirical evidence suggests that educational effects are more than just artifacts
of selection; education is a causal factor in many economic (e.g., employment, income, and occupational status) and noneconomic (e.g., marriage,
fertility, health, and civic engagement) outcomes. Furthermore, education’s
causal effects persist throughout the life course and have generally grown
over time, although broad generalizations may oversimplify some variability. Recent work implements sophisticated methodology to better estimate
causal effects and to parse out effect heterogeneity. However, many of the
patterns of heterogeneous effects of education, variability in effects by contextual conditions, and mechanisms that explain these effects remain elusive,
providing challenging yet rewarding areas for future research. Researchers
in this area should also investigate how the changing level and distribution
of education affects both collective and individual returns to education. Education has been a central concern for social scientists because it affects a wide
range of outcomes over the life course. As new research continues to identify
important effects of education, building on this tradition is imperative to a
bettering understanding of the social world.

Enduring Effects of Education

11

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MATTHEW CURRY SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Matthew Curry is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of
California—Los Angeles and a student affiliate at the California Center for
Population Research (CCPR). His areas of interest include social stratification and education, and his dissertation uses panel data to assess the causal
effects of economic recessions on returns to higher education in the United
States.
JENNIE E. BRAND SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Jennie E. Brand is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of
California—Los Angeles and Associate Director of the California Center
for Population Research (CCPR). Her research centers on inequality and its
implications for various outcomes that indicate life chances. This substantive
focus accompanies a methodological focus on causal inference and the application and innovation of statistical models for panel data. Current research

14

EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

projects include evaluation of heterogeneity in the effects of education on
socioeconomic outcomes and the socioeconomic and social-psychological
consequences of disruptive events.
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