[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-266608-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-266608-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","income-and-wage-inequality-decomposition-in-college-education-intensive-margin","Income and Wage Inequality Decomposition in College Education - Intensive Margin","","Income and wage inequality among U.S. adults with some college education increased substantially from 1970 onward. The analysis decomposes this rise into three components: the extensive margin from changing backgrounds of college attendees, a higher rate of return to aptitude producing wider income dispersion, and an intensive margin linked to evolving college market structure. The study uses matched longitudinal datasets and college-level information on student composition, selectivity, expenditures, and inputs to quantify each contribution, showing intensive margin as a major driver.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/income-and-wage-inequality-decomposition-in-college-education-intensive-margin/266608/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/income-and-wage-inequality-decomposition-in-college-education-intensive-margin/266608.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Terk","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-09-14",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",15,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What are the three components the paper uses to explain rising income and wage inequality?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The paper decomposes the change into the extensive margin (group composition shifts), an increased rate of return to aptitude, and the intensive margin (changes in how students with given aptitude interact with colleges).","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why is the intensive margin a central focus of the study?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It is highlighted because it has not been studied and because it can change how an aptitude distribution plays out over time as education supply evolves.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the study estimate contributions from each component?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It compares incomes, wages, backgrounds, and college experiences of males around age 32 across 1972, 1986, and 1995, using matched survey data and detailed college information on student body, selectivity, expenditures, and inputs.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},266608,1789409671,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":130},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":132},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":133,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},1099525198933,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","1  \nI. Introduction  \nIncome and wage inequality among adults with at least some college education has risen in the U.S. since 1970, so that the difference between a male in this group who is at the 90th percentile of the income distribution and a male at the 10th percentile has risen from about $13,275 in 1972 to about $49,000 in 1995 (both in 1995 dollars) . In this paper, we attempt to decompose the increase in income and wage inequality into three components. The first is the \"extensive margin,\" or the increase due to the increasingly diverse backgrounds of people who attend college.1 The second is an increasing rate of return to aptitude, so that a given distribution of aptitude among the college-educated generates an increasingly wide income distribution.2 The third component is the change in the market structure of college education such that a person of a given aptitude interacts differently with colleges. As shown in Hoxby (1997a,b), colleges have become increasingly segregated on the basis of students' aptitude, so that aptitude differentials within each college are falling and aptitude differentials between colleges are rising. Also, colleges' per-student expenditures have become increasing correlated with the aptitude of their student bodies. We call these phenomena the \"intensive margin\" because they affect the peers and other inputs that a student experiences once he has joined the ranks of college students.  \nWe are particularly interested in the intensive margin, partly because it is a phenomena that has not been studied and partly because it is a mechanism by which a given distribution of aptitude can play out differently over time as education supply changes. Moreover, it is the only one of the three components  \n1 The terms \"extensive margin\" is used to avoid confusion. Alternative terms would be \"selection into the group\" or \"composition of the group,\" but the concepts of selection and composition are also needed to explain the\"intensive margin\" of college education.  \n2 We use \"aptitude\" to refer to the combination of ability and achievement that forms the \"aptitude to succeed in college,\" the standard used in college admissions tests and similar examinations. Our references to aptitude should not be interpreted as though they referred to innate, cognitive ability.  \nSeveral other authors have suggested that an increasing return to aptitude explains a significant amount of the increase in income and wage inequality. See Blackburn and Neumark (1993), Heckman (1995), Levy, Murnane, and Willett (1995), Heckman et al (1996), Cawley, Heckman, and Vytlacil (1998), and Murnane et al  \n2  \nthat is both real and probably permanent. The increasing integration of the market for college appears tobe due to decreased information costs (multilateral information exchanges between students, colleges, and sources of financial aid) and decreased mobility costs (transportation, long-distance communication, longdistance media and culture) . See Hoxby (1997a) . These factors–especially the information exchange mechanisms that now characterize college searches–are likely to be permanent. In contrast, changes in within-group income inequality that are due to moving the group boundary (the extensive margin) are mainly of practical policy interest. They suggest that groups may need to be redefined if policies are to retain their intended meaning. Also, a rising rate of return to aptitude may be the result of a recent tendency for technological innovations to be complementary to skills. This tendency may continue for some years to come, but there have been past periods in which technological innovations tended to substitute for skills.  \nWe decompose the increase in income and wage dispersion among the college educated by comparing the incomes, wages, backgrounds, and college experiences of males who are approximately age 32 in 1972, 1986, and 1995. The males are selected on the basis of age from three data sets: Occupational Chang","cbCaiuoMgxHFk4Xg","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuoMgxHFk4Xg","pdf",1273682,82,"English","# Introduction\n## Three components of inequality change\n## Motivation for the intensive margin\n## Method and data sources\n## Findings and implications","[{\"question\":\"What are the three components the paper uses to explain rising income and wage inequality?\",\"answer\":\"The paper decomposes the change into the extensive margin (group composition shifts), an increased rate of return to aptitude, and the intensive margin (changes in how students with given aptitude interact with colleges).\"},{\"question\":\"Why is the intensive margin a central focus of the study?\",\"answer\":\"It is highlighted because it has not been studied and because it can change how an aptitude distribution plays out over time as education supply evolves.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the study estimate contributions from each component?\",\"answer\":\"It compares incomes, wages, backgrounds, and college experiences of males around age 32 across 1972, 1986, and 1995, using matched survey data and detailed college information on student body, selectivity, expenditures, and inputs.\"}]","Income and Wage Inequality Decomposition in College Education - Intensive Margin | PDF",207]