Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (4): 90-118.

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From Poverty to Prosperity:Poverty,Non-Cognitive Abilities,and First-Job Earnings

XU Duoduo   

  1. Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  • Online:2017-07-20 Published:2017-07-20

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Abstract:

One of the important findings in social stratification research is that the intergenerational association of socioeconomic status is much weaker,or even not existent,among college-educated people. While previous studies often attribute this evidence either to the high selectivity of tertiary education or to the signaling effect of the college diploma in labor markets,the role played by higher education itself in enhancing students' human capital is largely neglected. This paper attempts to demonstrate that higher education can weaken the impacts of family background by offering an open and fair stage for students from different social origins,helping them develop their non-cognitive skills to better cope with future work. Taking poverty as an example,analysis shows thatstudents from poor households may gradually catch up with their wealthy counterparts in terms of non-cognitive abilities during four years' college education,which eventually compensates forpotential disadvantages in first-job earnings.