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Neighborhood effects, college education, and social mobility

Abstract:

This study models the impact of environmental factors on upward social mobility, where the educational environment is measured by the proportion of college-educated individuals, and social mobility is measured by a change in proportion of people in different income classes. The dynamics of the educational environment is modeled using a modified version of the invasion/extinction ecological model of Richard Levins. The educational environment influences the educational choices of poor people, becoming effective only after a threshold point is reached. The rate of growth in influence is modeled using a monotonically increasing saturation function, which includes a delay parameter referred to as handling time, that measures the speed of influence. Our simulations indicate that poor people choose to become educated at a rate that primarily depends on the density of the local environment.