Elite Universities and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human and Social Capital
Andrés Barrios-Fernández, Christopher Neilson, Seth Zimmerman
American Economic Review · 2026 · Volume 116 · Issue 6
Abstract
Do elite colleges help talented students join the social elite or help incumbent elites retain their positions? We combine intergenerationally linked data from Chile with a regression discontinuity design to show that, looking across generations, elite colleges do both. Lower-status individuals who gain admission to elite college programs transform their children's social environment. Children become more likely to attend high-status private schools and colleges and to live near and befriend high-status peers. In contrast, academic achievement is unaffected. Simulations combining descriptive and quasi-experimental findings show that elite colleges tighten the link between social and human capital while decreasing intergenerational social mobility.
Keywords
Higher Education, Research Institutions, Returns to Education, Human Capital, Skills, Occupational Choice, Labor Productivity, Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility, Promotion, Economic Development: Human Resources, Human Development, Income Distribution, Migration, Economic Sociology, Economic Anthropology, Language, Social and Economic Stratification
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