Selected ongoing projects
The STEM Momentum: STEM Courses during the First Year of College and Gender Differences in STEM BA Attainment (with Oded Mcdossi) (R&R)
Women today receive over half of all bachelor’s degrees in the US, but only a small share of degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Recent investigations of these disparities suggest that a substantial portion of the gap emerge within college, with higher attrition rates of STEM-aspiring women from STEM fields. We argue that part of these disparities may be rooted in gender differences in the curricular momentum of students during their first year. We evaluate this argument with detailed transcript information on a large, nationally representative sample of high school students who attended four-year colleges in the mid-2000s and assess whether and how the composition of courses STEM-aspiring men and women take during the first year of college impacts gender disparities in the attainment of STEM degree. Results confirm that STEM-aspiring men and women have significantly different course composition during their first year, with men taking higher share of their courses in STEM. These disparities, in turn, structure their likelihood of obtaining a degree in STEM, even net of prior academic achievements, socioeconomic background, attitudes and college characteristics. Furthermore, we find significant gender disparities in the returns to STEM momentum among students who aspire for STEM occupation, but not among those who do not aspire for STEM education.
Organizational Identity and Student Diversity in US Colleges and Universities (with Erez A. Marantz)
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Despite various policy efforts, college enrollment patterns remain highly stratified by race and ethnicity, even among students with similar academic profiles. In this paper, we draw insights from the organizational literature to examine the role of organizational identity— colleges’ self-understandings of their central, distinctive, and enduring characteristics and mission—in shaping the diversity of their students. We assess the influence of organizational identity on diversity with original data containing the mission statements of all accredited colleges and universities in 2008 and 2018, along with comprehensive data on the organizational characteristics of all colleges obtained from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Our unique measures of organizational identity are derived from machine-learning models that enable us to identify reoccurring themes in mission statements and to characterize the identity of colleges in relation to other colleges in their environments. We then use fractional regression models to test how the distinctiveness of colleges’ identity and the extent to which they draw on multiple identity architypes—is related to the share of underrepresented minorities on campus. We find that colleges’ organizational identities are highly consequential for student diversity, even after accounting for key structural and academic characteristics (e.g., colleges' selectivity, location, revenues, degree offering, sector, etc.). Our results underscore the importance of organizational identity dynamics in shaping stratification in higher education, providing promising new avenues for future policies aimed at increasing diversity in US colleges.
The Changing Socioeconomic Profile of College Campuses in American Academia 2001-2016
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It is well established that students from different socioeconomic backgrounds attend colleges that differ in their location, degree offerings, selectivity, and focus. This paper examines how these disparities, in the aggregate, shape distinct socioeconomic profiles on college campuses. Using information on all accredited 4-year colleges in American higher education from 2001 to 2016, I track changes in the distribution of college campuses’ socioeconomic profiles and evaluate how macro-level changes may contribute to these patterns. I find that despite greater equality in access to colleges, disparities in the socioeconomic profile of colleges increased over time. Moreover, over time, dimensions of socioeconomic context became more crystallized so that colleges characterized by an advantage (or disadvantage) in one dimension were more likely to have an advantage (or disadvantage) in other dimensions in later years. Decomposition analysis suggests three main factors are associated with these changes: college tuition, the racial composition of colleges, and the expansion of for-profit colleges. Other commonly cited factors, such as colleges’ admission policies, size, revenues, or local competition, did not significantly influence the distribution of colleges’ socioeconomic profiles. These results highlight the significance of college pricing and funding policies in shaping patterns of socioeconomic segregation in higher education.