European Business Schools Librarian's Group
HEC Research Papers Series,
HEC Paris
No 1608: Ability, Not Heritage: Why Expanding University Access Often Fails to Narrow Intergenerational Educational Gaps
Thomas B. Astebro, Henrik Hällerfors, Andreas Bergh and Joacim Tåg
Additional contact information
Thomas B. Astebro: HEC Paris - Economics and Decision Sciences
Henrik Hällerfors: Uppsala University
Andreas Bergh: Lund University - Department of Economics; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
Joacim Tåg: Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); Hanken School of Economics
Abstract: Many countries have established new local colleges to increase access to education for disadvantaged populations. However, many of these expansions have not reduced educational inequality. Drawing on evidence from a large-scale college expansion initiative, we find that increased college availability did not lead to a differential increase in attendance among students from parents with less education. Rather, the expanded access primarily benefited students with marginal academic ability. These results suggest that higher education enrollment is largely determined by inherent scholastic ability and that the expansion of higher education tends to attract students at the upper margin of this ability distribution.
Keywords: Intergenerational correlations; university expansion; access to education; Higher education
JEL-codes: I23; I24; I28; J24; J62
27 pages, October 23, 2025
Full text files
papers.cfm?abstract_id=5646490 HTML file Full text
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Antoine Haldemann ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().
RePEc:ebg:heccah:1608This page generated on 2026-03-09 14:16:56.