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Title: "The Rich are Different from You and Me": How Affluent Student Bodies Foster Economically Conservative Affluent Students
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2014
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Abstract: Affluent Americans support pro-wealthy policies more than the non-affluent, and government responds more to the affluent. We develop, test and find support for a neglected source of affluent Americans wealth-justifying opinions: predominantly affluent college campuses. We rely on a large panel dataset (29,113 affluent students from 359 schools) with a high response rate. The affluent school effect holds with controls and matching analyses, among students whose school choice is more limited, and in a school undergoing a sudden change in affluence. Further support comes from placebo tests. The mechanism is campus norms of profit-seeking. In line with classic studies of socialization, college may affect citizens in their formative years. Contrary to those studies, college may align young adults with the upper-class perspectives and interests of affluent adults. Concentrated affluence can undermine universities mission of developing a future elite that checks its pursuit of profit with a sense of communal responsibility.
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Authors: Mendelberg, Tali; McCabe, Katherine; Thal, Adam
Publisher: Princeton University
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Education, Other
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