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Using intergenerationally linked Chilean data and a regression discontinuity design, it finds that elite college admission improves children’s social environment: higher rates of elite private schooling and college attendance, greater likelihood of living near and befriending high-status peers. Academic achievement is unchanged, tightening the social-human capital link while reducing intergenerational social mobility.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/elite-universities-and-the-intergenerational-transmission-of-human-and-social-capital-discussion-paper-no-2026-august-2024/583154/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/elite-universities-and-the-intergenerational-transmission-of-human-and-social-capital-discussion-paper-no-2026-august-2024/583154.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"\tJames","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-06","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the central question about elite colleges in the paper?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Whether elite colleges help talented students from modest backgrounds join the social elite or help incumbent elites retain their positions across generations.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What data and identification strategy does the paper use?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It combines intergenerationally linked data from Chile with a regression discontinuity design exploiting sharp admissions cutoffs.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What effects does elite college admission have on social outcomes and achievement?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Admission increases children’s exposure to high-status peers through elite schooling and networks, while academic achievement remains unaffected.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},583154,1792166609,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},2336474466412,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","Discussion Paper  \nISSN 2042-2695  \nNo. 2026 August 2024  \nElite universities and the intergenerational transmission of human and social capital  \nAndrés Barrios-Fernández Christopher Neilson Seth Zimmerman  \nAbstract  \nDo 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. Lowerstatus individuals who gain admission to elite college programs trans-form 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.  \nKeywords: elite universities, intergenerational mobility, human capital, social capital  \nJEL: I24; D64; J62  \nThis paper was produced as part of the Centre’s Education & Skills Programme. The Centre for Economic Performance is financed by the Economic and Social Research Council.  \nWe thank David Autor, Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Peter Ganong, Stephen Machin, Steve Pischke, Hannes Spinnewijn, Christian Wolf, and numerous seminar participants for helpful comments. For granting us access to the administrative data we use in this project, we thank the Chilean Ministry of Education and DEMRE.  \nAndrés Barrios-Fernández, Universidad de los Andes and Centre for Economic Performance at London School of Economics. Christopher Neilson and Seth Zimmerman, Yale University.  \nPublished by  \nCentre for Economic Performance  \nLondon School of Economic and Political Science Houghton Street  \nLondon WC2A 2AE  \nAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher nor be issued to the public or circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.  \nRequests for permission to reproduce any article or part of the Working Paper should be sent to the editor at the above address.  \n􀂔 A. Barrios-Fernández, C. Neilson and S. Zimmerman, submitted 2024.  \n1 Introduction  \nDo elite colleges help talented students from modest backgrounds join the social elite, or help incumbent elites retain their positions? This question is fundamental to the academic and popular debate over the social role of elite higher education, but the evidence is ambiguous. On the one hand, students from low-and middle-income families who enroll in elite colleges go on to earn more than similar students who enroll in less selective colleges. On the other hand, most students at elite colleges come from high-income families (Chettyet al. , 2020), and within elite universities, students from the highest-status families are more likely to attain top incomes and top jobs (Zimmerman, 2019; Michelman et al., 2022) .  \nA central challenge in adjudicating this debate is that it is multi-generational and multi-dimensional. Both academic and social preparation are important mediators of access to and success within elite universities (Arcidiacono and Lovenheim, 2016; Rivera, 2016; Jack, 2019) . Further, elite education may shape the way both human and social capital evolve across generations. Quantifying these effects is difficult because, in addition to the standard challenges associated with causal inference, it requires measuring outcomes across multiple generations.  \nChile is perhaps the only setting in which it is feasible to conduct this type of analysis at present. Three features of Chilean institutions are critical. The first feature is the availability of administrative educational records spanning more than five decades and containing family identifiers that allow","cbCaifpEUlxtlOUV","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifpEUlxtlOUV","pdf",5184527,134,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Research question and ambiguity in existing evidence\n## Chile as a feasible setting\n## Administrative records and linkage across generations\n## Exam-based centralized admissions and sharp cutoffs\n## Defining elite programs and measuring social capital","[{\"question\":\"What is the central question about elite colleges in the paper?\",\"answer\":\"Whether elite colleges help talented students from modest backgrounds join the social elite or help incumbent elites retain their positions across generations.\"},{\"question\":\"What data and identification strategy does the paper use?\",\"answer\":\"It combines intergenerationally linked data from Chile with a regression discontinuity design exploiting sharp admissions cutoffs.\"},{\"question\":\"What effects does elite college admission have on social outcomes and achievement?\",\"answer\":\"Admission increases children’s exposure to high-status peers through elite schooling and networks, while academic achievement remains unaffected.\"}]","Elite universities and the intergenerational transmission of human and social capital - Discussion Paper - No. 2026 August 2024 | PDF",1792046030,338]