The causes and consequences of attending historically black colleges and universities

DEWEV

HB31

.M415

Massachusetts

Institute

of

Technology

Department

of

Economics

Working

Paper

Series

The

Causes

and

Consequences

of

Attending

Historically

Black

Colleges

and

Universities

Roland

G.

Fryer,

Jr.

Michael

Greenstone

Working

Paper

07-1

2

April

9,

2007

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The

Causes

and Consequences

of

Attending

Historically

Black

Colleges

and

Universities*

Roland

G.Fryer,Jr.

Harvard University and

NBER

Michael Greenstone

MIT

and

NBER

April

2007

We

aregratefultoDavid Card,David Cutler,Bryan Graham, Chang-TaiHsieh, LawrenceKatz,HenryLouis Gates,Jr.,EdwardGlaeser,Lani Gunier, CarolineHoxby, GlennLoury, Enrico Moretti,AndreiShleifer,Lawrence

Summers,colleaguesattheMellonFoundation,andparticipants innumerousseminars.Fryerisespeciallythankful

totheMichorfamilyinKritzendorf,Austriafortheirsupportandgeneroushospitalitywhileworking onthe paper.

This papermakesuseoftheCollegeandBeyond(C&B)database.The

C&B

databaseisarestricted-usedatabase. Researcherswhoareinterested inusingthedatabase

may

applytotheAndrew

W.

Mellonfoundationforaccess.

Sam

Schulhofer-Wohl, Sheldon Bond,JorgSpenkuch,ElizabethGreenwood, andPaulTorelliprovided exceptional

research assistance. All errors are ourown. Correspondence can be addressed to Fryerat the Department of

Economics, HarvardUniversity, 1805CambridgeStreet,Cambridge

MA,

02138,(e-mail:rfryer@fas.harvard.edu);

orGreenstoneatDepartment of Economics,MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology, 50MemorialDrive,E52-359,

Digitized

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The

Causes and Consequences

of

Attending

Historically

Black

Colleges

and

Universities

ABSTRACT

Until the 1960s, HistoricallyBlack Colleges

and

Universities

(HBCUs)

were

practicallytheonly

institutions of higherlearning

open

to Blacks inthe

US.

Using

nationally representativedata

files

irom

1970s

and

1990scollege attendees,

we

findthat inthe 1970s

HBCU

matriculation

was

associatedwith higher

wages

and anincreased probabilityofgraduation,relative to attending a

Traditionally

White

Institution(TWI).

By

the 1990s,however,thereisa

wage

penalty, resulting

ina

20%

declinein therelative

wages

of

HBCU

graduates

between

the

two

decades.

We

also

analyze the College

and

Beyond's 1976

and

1989 samples ofmatriculates

which

allowsus to

focus

on two

ofthe

most

elite

HBCUs.

Between

the 1970s

and

1990s,

HBCU

students report

statistically significant declines in the proportion that

would

choose the

same

college again,

preparation for getting along with other racial groups, and

development

ofleadership skills,

relativetoblackstudentsin

TWIs.

On

the positiveside,

HBCU

attendees

became

relatively

more

likely to be

engaged

insocial, political, andphilanthropic activities.

The

data provide

modest

support for the possibility that

HBCUs'

relative decline in

wages

is partially due to

improvements

in

TWIs'

effectivenessateducatingblacks.

The

data contradicta

number

ofother

intuitive explanations,includingrelativedeclineinpre-coUegecredentials(e.g.,

SAT

scores) of

studentsattending

HBCUs

and

expenditures perstudentat

HBCUs.

Roland

G.Fryer,Jr. . Michael Greenstone

Haiward

University ' '

MIT

Department

of

Economics

Department

of

Economics

1805

Cambridge

Street 50

Memorial

Drive,

E52-359

Cambridge,

MA

02138

Cambridge,

MA

02142

andNBER

^^ -

andNBER

Introduction

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

(HBCUs)

have a proud and storied role in the

education and progress ofBlacks in America. For nearly a century, Historically Black Collegesand

Universities

(HBCUs)

werepractically theonlyinstitutionsof higherlearningopentoBlacksintheUS.

Today, roughly

20%

ofallcollege goingBlackschooses toattend one ofthe 103

HBCUs

and these

institutions are responsible for

22%

ofcuirentbachelor's degrees granted to Blacks. W.E.B. Dubois

(Wilberforce), Ralph Ellison (Tuskegee), Martin Luther King, Jr. (Morehouse), Thurgood Marshall

(Lincoln),Ruth

Simmons

(Dillard),andOprah Winfrey(Tennessee State)headlinealonglistoffamous

HBCU

alumni.

Among

Blacks, 40%) ofallcongressmen, 12.5%) ofCEOs, 50%) of professorsat

non-HBCUs,

50%

of lawyers,and

80%

of judgesare

HBCU

graduates.'

HBCUs'

successes arein nosmallpartdue to theirsubstantial financialsupportfrom federal,

state,andtoa lesserdegree, localgovernments. Between 1977and2001,61%)to73%o of public

HBCUs

revenues

came

frompublic fiinds. Whilenumbers aresmallerforprivate

HBCUs,

public supportstill

accounts for nearlya third oftotal revenues. In theyears 1999-2001, annualtotal public support of

HBCUs

averaged roughly $2.65billion(2005$) (Provasniketal.2004).

Despitetheirpastsuccessesandhistoricalimportance,

HBCUs

areatacrossroadstoday. In U.S.

V. Fordice("505U.S. 717 (1992)), the SupremeCourtinstructed state legislatures to find"educational

justification" for the existence of

HBCUs

or integrate them; the latterwould completely alter their

mission. Inresponse,

some

HBCUs

experienced declinesin enrollment,others havepursued dramatic

increasesinthe fractionofnon-Blackstudents,anda

number

of

HBCUs

haveseenimportantdeclinesin

theirfinancial positions.^

The

Supreme Court'scall foran "educationaljustification"issurely related to theabsence of

convincing evidence on the causes and consequences of attending an

HBCU

for Blacks.

HBCU

proponents claim that they provide an idyllic learningenvironment that is free from thepressures of

discriminationandracism. It isalsoarguedthat

HBCUs

helptobuildimportantsocial capital forBlacks

by engendering a strong sense of

communal

responsibility and civic consciousness and providing

networkingopportunities forhigh achievingBlacks(Drewry and

Doennarm

2001). Ifthesearguments

are correct, then

HBCUs

offerunique opportunities foreducafional and social development ofBlack

studentsandtheargumentforremaining segregatedseemsjustified.

Thedata sourcesareCongressionalBlackCaucus(congressmen), BlackEnterprise(CEOs),

US

Departmentof Education, OfficeofCivilRights(professors),and Ehrenberg(1996)(Lawyers andJudges).

Therulinghadan adverseeffectonmanyHBCUs.AlcornStateexperienced a9.9%decreaseinenrollmentand

Mississippi ValleyState a20.1% decrease.OtherHBCUs,especiallyinNorthCarolina,haveshown substantial

increasesinintegration.ElizabethCityStateincreasedfrom1

1%

whitein1980to23.

7%

in1998,Fayetteville State

from 11.9to22.2,NorthCarolina Centralfrom4.1to 13.4,andWinstonSalem from 11.3to18.0. Inotherstates,

On

the other hand, it is possible that

HBCUs

are inferior to Traditionally White Institutions

(TWIs)inpreparing Blacksforpost-collegelife. Ifstudents aretakinglesschallenging coursesfi-omless

distinguishedfaculty,haveaccesstopoorresources,or arenotinvestinginthe socialskillsnecessaryto

interactwith diverse sets of people, then graduates willperform poorly inthe labormarket and have

inferior non-labor market outcomes. In this scenario, the case for supporting

HBCUs

with public

resourcesappears weak.

This paper empiricallyassesses the causes and consequences of

HBCU

attendance so that the

future decisionsby governments, students,and parents arebased on evidence, ratherthantheoriesand

historicalanecdotes.

We

analyzethi^eelargedatasetswith adequatepreandpostcollegeinfonnationfor

Blacksthat identify thestudents'choice ofcollege and whetheritisan

HBCU.

Thedata setsare: the

National Longitudinal Sui^veyofthe HighSchool Class of1972 (NLS-72), Baccalaureate and

Beyond

(B&B), and theCollege and

Beyond

database (C&B).The first two datasetsprovide a snapshot ofa nationally representative sample of

HBCU

studentsat two points in time: 1972 and 1992. The third datasetcontainsfour

HBCUs,

Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, andXavier,allowing ustotake afocused lookintothemostelite

HBCUs

in 1976and 1989.Althoughthere areimportantlimitationswith each of

these datasets,togethertheyprovidea rich portraitofthecausesandlabormarketandnon-labormarket

consequencesof

HBCU

attendance. Importantly,thesedata setssamplecollegematriculatesinthe 1970s

and 1990s so it is possible to assess

how

these causes and consequences changed during these two

decadesof dramaticsocialchange.

The analysis uses four separate statistical approaches to adjust for pre-college differences

between

HBCU

and

TWI

attendees.

We

beginbyusingthe richsetofcovariatesonfamilybackgroimd

andhigh schoolacademic achievement(including

SAT

scores) tofitleastsquares models.

We

then use

the same pre-college covariates to implement a propensity-score matching estimator to assess the

robustnessofthe results to functional formassumptions aboutthe observables. These approaches are

supplemented by methods that are designed to account for selection bias due to missing outcome

observations

(Heckman

1979) and bias which emerges

when

colleges admit students based partly on

characteristics unobsei"ved in our data that are positively correlated with future outcomes (Dale and

Ki-ueger 2002).

Theresults arerobust acrossthesefourmethods. However,lackingarandomizedexperimentor

credible quasi-experiment, thorny issues ofselection

may

remain. Consequently,

we

urge caution in

interpreting the results as causal.

Togetherthenationallyrepresentative

NLS

and

B&B

revealan importantchangeinthe returnsto

HBCU

attendance. In the 1970s,

HBCU

matriculationwasassociatedwith higherwagesand an increased

penalty. Overall, thereis a

20%

declineinthe relativewagesof

HBCU

graduatesinjusttwodecades.

Interestingly, relativepre-collegemeasures ofstudent quality

(SAT

scores,e.g.)improved

among

HBCU

attendeesduringthisperiod,so higher achievingstudentswereincreasinglychoosingtheseschoolsatthe

sametimethatthe returns forattendingtheseschoolswerefallingbehind.

Theunderlying sourceofthedeclinein

HBCU

perfoiTnanceisunlikely tobeimportantforpolicy

reasons,giventhehighcourt's stance. Nevertheless,understandingitwouldbe of considerableinterestto

researchersand educationalpractitioners. Thedata fail tocontradict, and in atleast one specification

support, the possibility that

HBCUs'

relative decline is partially due to improvements in TWIs'

effectivenessateducatingblacks. In contrast,thedatacontradict a

number

ofintuitiveexplanationsfor the decline in outcomes

among

HBCU

attendees

—

for example, educational expenditures per student

increasedmoreat

HBCUs

thanat

TWIs

betweenthe 1970sand 1990s.

The

C&B

provides a rare opportunity to assess the most elite colleges. Here too, there is

evidence of a

wage

decline between the 1976 and 1989 cohorts but it should only be considered

suggestive because these estimates are imprecise. There is stronger evidence that the later

HBCU

matriculateswerelesssatisfiedwiththeirchoice ofcollegeandself-reporteddevelopingfewerleadership

andsocialskillsthatarevaluableinpost-collegelife,relativeto

TWI

students.

On

theotherhand,the

latercohortwassignificantlymoreHkelytobeinvolvedin political,social,andphilanthropicactivities.

Thepaper proceedsasfollows. SectionIIprovides abrief historyof

HBCUS

andtheirimportant

role intheeducation of blacksinAmerica. Section IIIreviews sometheoretical explanationsfor

why

blacksmightbenefit (orbe haniied)byattending ahistoricallyblackcollege or university. SectionIV

presentsthedataand

summary

statistics.Sections

V

and

VI

report resultsonthecausesandconsequences

of

HBCU

attendance. Section VIIsummarizesthe differencesbetweenthe resultsfromthe 1970sand

1990sandassesses alternativeexplanationsforthese differences. Lastly,Section VIII concludes.

A

data

appendix describesthe detailsof oursampleconstmction.

:

.•

II.

A

BriefHistory of HistoricallyBlackCollegesandUniversities

A.Ante-BellumPeriod

The1860Censuscounted4.4millionBlackpeopleintheUnitedStates,mostof

whom

lived in

theSouthernstatesand wereheldas slaves.Prior to theend ofthe CivilWar,teachingslavestoread or

writewasprohibitedby law(or socialcustom)in

many

areasofthe South.Still, therewerethreeBlack

colleges founded before the Civil War: the Institute for Colored Youth (now

known

as Cheney

University) was founded in Pennsylvania in 1837; Lincoln College in Pennsylvania, 1854, and

Wilberforce College in Ohio, 1856. All of these universities served secondary and post-secondai'y

the Freedmen'sBureau, black communities and their churches, and private philanthropists organized

schoolsforBlacks(Donohue,Heckman, and

Todd

2002).

B.Post-Civil

War and

theSecondMorrill

Land

Grant

During theperiod immediately following the CivilWar, there was adramatic increase in the

number of educational institutions geared toward blacks, funded primarily through groups like the

AmericanMissionary Association, theFreedmen's Bureaus,and southernstate governments,especially

duringthe Reconstructionperiod. Between 1865 and 1890, overtwo hundredprivateblackinstitutions

were founded in the south. Very few ofthese early institutions awarded bachelor's degrees. The AmericanMissionary Association,theFreedmen'sBureaus,andothergroupsthatwereactiveintheearly

educationoffreedblacksplayed alarge roleinestablishingsome standardof education

—

mostnotably

literacy

—

thatwouldbe important

when

degree grantinginstitutionsforBlacksopenedenmasseinthe

1890s.

Mostpublic

HBCUs

trace theirhistorytothesecondMoixill Act,passedinAugust 1890.Inthe

next decade,16

HBCUs

openedtheirdoors.TheMorrillActallowedfor the creationofa two-tiersystem

of landgrant universities, with southernandborderstatescreating

HBCUs

principally togain accessto

federal"funds to develop white land grant colleges. These

HBCUs

were largely limited to vocational

training;well-knownagricultural,mechanical,andtechnical institutionssuchasNorthCarolina

A&T

and

Florida

A&M

were foundedduringthisperiod.

By

1895, public

HBCUs

hadawarded 1,100 college diplomastoblackstudents.Yet, liberalarts

education, as was offered at

many

public white institutions, remainedunavailable toblack students.

DuringtheJim

Crow

erainthesouththatfollowedReconstmction, educationalopportunities forwhite

studentsexpanded andblackswerealmost completelyexcludedfromwhiteinstitutions.

Inthe 1896 decision,Plessy v. Ferguson (163 U.S. 537(1896)), the two-tier system of higher

education, basedon the incentive structure in the Second MorrillAct,

became

more finnly set.

As

a

result,

HBCUs

beganto

become

institutions thatprimarily trainedteacherstoteachinsegregated public

schools. The rapid expansion of black high schools in southern urban areas set in motion a

supply-demand

chaininwhichavailabilityof teachingpositions,supportedbystatetreasuries,drewmoreblack

students into

HBCUs

to qualify themselves for teaching positions (Roebuck andMurty 1993). There

becamean interdependencebetweenthepublicschoolsystemand

HBCUs.

C. World

War

II

and

theHigherEducation Actof 1965

HBCUs,

aswellasother institutionsof higherlearning,facedafundingcrisisinthe1940sdueto

wasestablished, raising$765,000 for

HBCUs

inits firstfixndingcampaign;threetimesas

much

ashad beenraisedbythe individualcollegesinthepreviousthree years.

The landmarkdecisionin

Brown

v.

Board

ofEducation (349 U.S.294(1955))andthe legislation

developedtoimplementitimprovedthe plightof

many

HBCUs.

TitleIIIoftheHigherEducationActof

1965, which was devoted to "Strengthening Developing Institutions" was interpreted as primarily

refen-ingto

HBCUs. As

aresult

many

HBCUs

benefitedgreatlyfromthefederalfundsprovidedunder

TitleIII, funds that couldbe used for faculty and studentexchanges, faculty improvement programs,

cumculum

improvements, studentservices, visiting scholarsprograms, and administrative improvements.

Despitethematerialgains to the

HBCUs

arisingundertheHigherEducation Act,the

NAACP

continueda legal strategy ofattacking the two-tiereducationalsystem, asking the U.S. Department of

Health,Education,andWelfaretoenforcethe CivilRightsActof1964 andprohibitsouthernstatesfrom

operatingasegregatedhighereducation system.In the1973 case of

Adams

v.Richardson (356F.Supp.

92(D.D.C.),modifiedandaffd,480F.2d1159 (D.C.Cir.1973)), the

NAACP

won,requiring that states

develop desegregationstrategies thatwouldallowforabetter racialmixofstudents, faculty,andstaffin

publiccolleges,andincrease theaccessandretentionofminoritiesat alllevelsof highereducation.The

ruling

was

primarilyaimedat

non-HBCUs,

however,andthecourt

made

itclear thatfulfillingthe ruling's

mandateshould notbeaccomplishedattheexpense ofordetrimenttotraditionallyblackcolleges

The

Adams

decisionincreasedfunding for

HBCUs

becausethedecisionstated that statescould notmeettheirmandates byclosing

HBCUs

andthattheymustinsteadinclude "yardsticks"tomeasurethe

improvementof blackcolleges' facilitiesaswellas theiracademicprograms.

The

court'sreasoningwas

thatthiswastheonly

way

possible toensurethat

HBCUs

would

become

desirable institutions forwhite

students.

D.The UnintendedConsequences ofU.S.v.Fordice - . •. ,;•::;.'':;-^ , r

:.:,y.

.%'/

^^

On

June 26, 1992, theSupreme Court decided U.S. v. Fordice, adecisionbroughtby ablack

litigant withthechiefaim ofremoving structural differencesbetween

HBCUs

andtraditionally white

institutions.Theplaintiff, representedby the

NAACP,

brought thesuitbecause ofthe disparity inthe

number

and qualityofthe academicprograms, instmctionalstaff,andphysical plant facihties, arguing

thatthisresultedfromthe "historicallyoperatedraciallysegregated dualsystemsof higher education."

Thecourt ruled thatitwouldbe wastefultomaintainthe two-tiersystemthathad beenerectedduring an

eraof de juresegregation,notingthatMississippihadeight institutions, fivewhiteandthreeblack,and

thatfour ofthem(two whiteand twoblack)werewithin 25 milesof oneanother. Thedecisionwasa

victoiy forcivilrightslawyers,ordering Mississippi and 18 othersouthernstatestodomoreto integrate

However,themling hadan adverseeffecton

HBCUs

becausethecourtorderedstate legislatures

tofind"educationaljustification for thecontinued existence"ofthetwoparalleleducation systems. The

consequencesofthismlingforthe futureof

HBCUs

isunclearat thispoint,butatleastthreeoutcomes

seempossible: 1)adecisionthat

HBCUs

areindispensablefor theeducation of Blacksandanincreasein

public funding; 2)increased recruitmentand matriculationof whitestudents,whichhasthe potentialto

underminetheunique missionandcultureoftheseinstitutions;and3) adecisionthattheynolongerare

necessary(or asnecessary)andacommensuratereductioninpublicfinancial support.

The remainder ofthe paper assesses empirically the causes and consequences of attending

HBCUs,

whichwillhelpdeterminetheir"educationaljustification."

III.Conceptual

Framework

There are at least three theories for

why

blacks would benefit from racial segregation of

institutions of higher education. First,

Tatum

(1997) argues that racial grouping is adevelopmental

processinresponsetoracism. Thisargumentgoesthatsegregationbyraceisa positivecopingstrategy

thatallowsindividuals to gathersupportthrough shared experiencesandmutual understanding. Second,

Wilson's (1987) pioneering study ofthe South Side ofChicago argues thatthemigration oftalented

blacks from black neighborhoods had adverse effects on the individuals left behind.

A

similar

phenomenon

may

existforsegregation acrossschools- lowabilityblacks

may

benefitfromsegregation

throughmoreintensive interactions with theirhighabilitypeers. Third, segregatedsocial connections

within schools

may

alsoreduce adverse peerinteractions resultingfrominterracial contact.Fryerwith

Torelli(2006)showsthat racialdifferencesinthe socialprice foracademicachievementareexacerbated

inenvironments withmoreinteixacialcontact.

Thereare also several theories for

why

racialsegregation acrosscolleges anduniversities

may

harm

blacks.

A

well developed literature emphasizes theimportance of peer groups (Coleman 1966), social interactions (Case and Katz 1991, Cutler and Glaeser 1997), and network externalities (Borjas

1995, Lazear1999), especially foryouths.

Many

arguethat these effects areimportantinthefonnation of

skilland valuesandthedevelopmentof

human

andsocialcapital.Moreover,segi-egationacrossschools

may

lead to the development of an "oppositional culture" and the enforcement of other negative

behavioralnonns(Ogbu 1989). Additionally,segregationacrossschoolscan preventpositive spillovers

betweenraciallydefinedpeer groups (Lazear1999).

A

final disadvantage of the separation of racial groups across universities concerns the

importance ofinterracial contactinmediatingstereotypes andpromotingunderstanding andtolerance.

Interracialinteraction generally leads to positive sentiment

(Hpmans

1950),andfostersthecreationof

Itisimpossibletoidentifytheseparateimpact of each ofthese chamielsonsegregated Blacks'

wellbeing with theavailabledatasets. Instead,thispaper's goalistoproducereliableestimatesofthe

netimpactof

HBCU

attendance. Theresulting"reducedforni"estimates will likelyreflecta

number

of

thechannelsspecified inthissection.

IV.Data Sourcesand

Summary

Statistics

We

analyzethree large datasets:

The

NationalLongitudinalStudy oftheHighSchool Class of

1972 (NLS-72), Baccalaureate and

Beyond

Longitudinal Study (B&B), and the College and

Beyond

(C&B)

database. Thesedata setshavebeenchosen because oftheenormousamountof information each

containsonpre-collegeacademicperformance, familybackground,college entry decisions,perfoiTnance

whilein college,andlater lifeoutcomes.^Throughoutthe analysis, the rich setof pre-collegeandfamily

backgroundvariables are used as conditioning variables to adjust for obsei^vable differences between

HBCU

and

non-HBCU

matriculatesinequationsfor theother variables.

We

discusseach ofthesesources

andpresent

summary

statisticsfromthem.

Before proceedingto thismaterial.AppendixTable 1providessome

summary

statisticsonthe89

4-year historicallyblackcollegesand universities intheUnited States. Foity-nine ofthemareprivate

institutions. Theyarepredominantly locatedintheSouth. Togethertheirundergraduate enrollmentinthe

Fallof2005

was

238,911 andtherewereanadditional37,151 graduatestudents enrolled. Thefourteen

historicallyblack 2-yearcolleges arenotincludedinthistable.

A.TheNational LongitudinalSurveyoftheHigh SchoolClassof 1972

TheNational Longitudinal Surveyofthe HighSchool Class of 1972(NLS-72) is anationally

representativesampleof 23,451 high schoolseniors in1972. Participants in thesamplewereselectedin

theSpring of 1972,andinasupplemental^sampledrawnin 1973. Thedataincludeabase yearsurvey,

andfollow-up surveysin 1973,1974, 1976, 1979, and 1986.Roughly 1,300 high schoolsareincludedin

thesample,with an average of18studentsperschoolinthe study.

A

widerange ofdataisgatheredonthestudentsinthe study, asdescribedindetailatthe

NLS-72

website (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/nls72). There is detailed information on each student's family

environment, parent's education and occupation, socio-economic status, and the pre-college

characteristicsof eachstudent(i.e. high schoolgrades,collegeadmissionscores,andsoon). Thereare also detailed records from post-secondary transcripts, collected in 1984, and high school records.

Two

other data sets collected by the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Educational LongitudinalStudy2000(NELS)andtheBeginningPostsecondaryStudy(BPS),areequippedtoanswersomeof

thequestionsposedhere.Unfortunately,however,these datasetsdonot track individualslongenoughaftercollege

Importantforour purposes,a six digit identificationnumber was assignedtoeducationalinstitutionsby

the Federal Interagency Committee on Education (FICE) to, historically, distinguish postsecondary

schoolsthat qualifiedas institutionsof higherlearningfromthose thatdidnot.Thesecodesare cracialin

defining

HBCUs

andensuringthatthisdefinitionisconsistent acrossdatasets.

B.Baccalaureate

and Beyond

TheBaccalaureateand

Beyond

LongitudinalStudy

(B&B)

isanationally representativesample

of 11,192 degree completersfrom 648 American colleges anduniversities in the 1992-1993 academic

year.

To

identifyarandom sampleof degree completers,

B&B

usestheNationalPostsecondary Student

AidStudyas a basis.TheNationalPostsecondary StudentAidStudy isa largenationallyrepresentative

sampleofcollegesanduniversities, students,andparents.

A

considerableamountofdataisgatheredonthestudentsinthestudy, asdescribedindetail at

the

B&B

website http://nces.ed.gov/sui"veys/b&b. It contains detailed information on pre-coUege

characteristicsof eachstudent, informationabouttheirparents and

home

environment,andfinancialaid

infonnation.Follow-up sui"veyswere administeredin 1994, 1997,and 2003. Thesefollow-up surveys

include informationonemployment andentry intograduate school.

We

focusontheresponsestothe

1997sui-vey,whichtakesplaceaftermoststudents areintheworkplace.

We

hadhopedtousethe2003

datamore extensively,but

we

foundittobe of generallypoorqualityonthedimensions

we

caredmost

about. For example,

25%

ofthe originalblack respondentsattritedfromthe2003sample,comparedto

just

6%

inthe1997 sample.And,thisattritionwaslargelyfromblack studentsinTWIs.

Thereisoneimportantdifferencebetweenthe

B&B

andtheotherdata sets

we

employ.The

NLS

and

C&B

begin withsamples ofstudents thatenrolled theirfreshmanyear. The

B&B

samples degree

completers, which can introduce bias if graduation rates between

HBCUs

and

non-HBCUs

differ

substantially.

Whenever

the results fromthissurvey differwithour other data,

we

willbeclearabout

whetherthisdifferencecanbe accountedforbydifferences insamples.

A

convenient

way

tohandlethisis

to restrictthesampleinourother datasetstobe of degree completers,which

we

do throughout.

C.TheCollege

and Beyond

Database

TheCollege and

Beyond

Database contains studentlevel administrative dataonon93,660

full-timestudents

who

entered(butdid not necessarilygraduatefrom)thirty-fourcollegesanduniversitiesin

thefallof 1951, 1976,and1989.Theseinstitutionalrecordswerelinkedtoan extensive survey conducted

by the

Andrew W.

Mellon Foundation between 1995 and 1997 and to files providedby the College

EntranceExaminationBoard andtheHigherEducation ResearchInstitute.Therearefour

HBCUs

inthe

dataonallfourblackcolleges; the 1989cohortonly includesMorehouseandXavier.''Thefinaldata set consistsof blackstudentsfrom 34collegesanduniversitiesincludingthefourelite

HBCUs;

thesample

consistsof 2,125studentsin 1976and1,785in1989.

The

C&B

data areremarkablyrich,containinginfoiTnationdrawn fromstudents'applicationsand

transcripts, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Test

(ACT)

scores, as well as

infonnationonfamilydemographic andsocioeconomicstatus.This informationwasattainedbylinking

the institutional files ofthe thii1y-four colleges and universities with data provided by the College

EntranceExamination Board andtheHigher Education ResearchInstitute. Importantly,the

C&B

survey

includestheresponsestoa questionnaireadministeredtoallthreecohortsin 1996thatprovidesdetailed

informationonpost-collegelabormarket,lifesatisfaction,andotheroutcomes. Theresponseratetothe

1996 questionnairewas approximately 80%. The College and

Beyond

Survey is described in greater

detailin

Bowen

and

Bok

(1998).

D.

Summaiy

Statistics

Summary

statisticsforthe variables inour corespecification aredisplayedinTable 1 forblack

studentsinthe three datasetsdescribed above,accordingtowhetheror nottheyattend a

HBCU

or

TWI.

Students

who

aremissing dataonrace orwhichcollegethey attendedaredroppedfromthesample.

Table1consistsoffive setsof columns.Thefirstcolumnprovides

summary

statisticsforstudents

inthe

NLS-72

whosefirstcollegewasan

HBCU

versus

TWI,

wherefirstcollegeisdefinedasthefirst

4-year college a studentattends.

An

individual

who

attends ajuniorcollege,technical school, or thelikeand

then attends an

HBCU

willbe counted ashaving his firstcollege as an

HBCU.

The second column

restrictsthesampletothose

who

completedabachelor'sdegree,allowingoneto

make

directcomparisons with

B&B

whosedescriptivestatisticsaredisplayedincolumn3.

Columns

4 and5providemeansofthe variables forstudentsinthe

C&B

databaseforthe1976and1989cohorts, respectively.^

Across all our datasets, blacks attending

TWIs

tend to have substantially higher academic

credentials. In theNLS-72,

SAT

and

ACT

scores of Blacksin

TWIs

are roughly 1 standard deviation

higher. Yet,Blacks attending

HBCUs

haveslightlyhigher

GPAs

thantheirpeers

who

attend

TWIs

(2.86

compared to 2.83), suggesting that these students attend less academically challenging high schools.

Students in

HBCUs

are morelikely to attend private high schools. Similartrends are apparent inthe

B&B,

thoughthedifferencesinacademiccredentials between

HBCU

studentsand

non-HBCU

students are lesspronounced.

A

portionofthedifferencebetweenthe

NLS-72

and

B&B

can be explainedbythe

Allforthcomingresultshavebeenrunbyrestrictingthe1976cohorttoMorehouse and Xaviertoensurethatany

differenceswhich emergecannot be explainedbydifferentsamplesinthetwocohorts.

differentsamplerestrictions.

Inthe 1976 and 1989 cohorts of

C&B,

the

GPAs

ofBlackstudents in

HBCUs

are .73 and.5

standarddeviationsless,respectively.

SAT

and

ACT

scoresof

HBCU

students aremorethan1 standard

deviationbehind Blackstudentsin

non-HBCUs.

In these data, students

who

attend

HBCUs

are less likely

tohaveattendedaprivatehighschool.

The"Pre-College Personal and Family Background" variablesprovide measures forthe

home

environmentsthat students werereared in. These variables include family income (measuredin 1972

dollars), parental education, orwhether or nota student attendedhigh school in a rural area or the

southern portion ofthe US. The definitionofincome differs slightly between data sets. In NLS-72,

studentswereasked,

"What

istheapproximateincomebeforetaxesofyour parents(orguardian)? Include

taxableand non-taxableincome fromallsources."For

B&B,

we

used familyincomein1991 forstudents

thatweredependents oftheirparentsandthestudent's

own

taxedanduntaxed incomeforstudents that

werenotdependents.^For

C&B,

familyincomeisderivedfromthe

HERI

studentsui"vey.The

CPI-U

was

usedtoconvertallincome measuresto1982-84dollars.

Itisapparentthatthere areimportant observabledifferencesbetweenblacks

who

attend

HBCUs

and TWIs.Thesubsequentanalysisusesa varietyofstatisticalapproachesto adjust forthese differences.

Thethirdpanelreportson

many

ofthe outcomevariables.These includewages,majorchoice,

whether or not a student received their bachelor's degree, attended graduate school, orobtained a

graduatedegree, andvariablesdesignedtomeasurecollegeexperiencesandjobandlifesatisfaction.In

therawdata,blacks

who

attend

HBCUs

tendto

make

less

money

than blacks

who

attendTWIs,withone

exception;NLS-72.^Theyare also less likely tobeemployedfull-timeandmorelikely tobedissatisfied

withlife.

HBCU

students aremorelikelytomajorinphysicalsciences.

Inthetwonationallyrepresentativesamples,blackstudentsat

HBCUs

aremorelikelytoreceive

abachelor'sdegreeandattendgraduate school (though theyarelesslikely tograduate).Blackstudentsin

theelite

HBCUs

aremorelikely tomajorinbiologicalsciences(thisisdriveninlarge partbyXavier

who

hasa storied reputation forpre-medical studies),business, lesslikely toreceiveabachelor'sdegree or

attendgraduateschool,and,inthe1989cohort,less likelytoreport that theircollegeexperience helped

Forstudents

who

weretheirparents'dependentsin 1991,totalfamilytaxedand untaxedincomewasobtained,in

orderofpriority,fromthestudent'sfinancial aidapplication, atelephone interviewofparents, atelephone interview ofthe student, thestudent's Pellgrant file,or the student loanfile. Forstudents thatwere nottheir parents' dependent,theinformationwasobtained,inorderofpriority,fromthe financial aid application, the student'sphone

interview,thestudent'sPellgrantfile,orthestudentloanfile.

'_{IntheNLS-72,theaverage hourlywage}

is$12.82 ($14.46)for

HBCU

attendees (graduates)and$10.55 ($11. 38)

for

TWI

attendees(graduates). Themeanofthe naturallogarithmof hourlywagesisabout

5%

(12%)higherfor

TWI

attendees(graduates). Thedifferenceintherankof wagesacross

HBCUs

andTWIsisdueto a single

HBCU

respondent with an average hourlywageof$494. Theinfluenceofthisobsei'vadonontheTable1 entriesisalso evidentinthelargerstandard deviation ofwagesamong

HBCU

attendeesandgraduates. SeetheDataAppendixfor detailsonthesampleselectionndes.

develop anabilitytogetalong withindividualsofother races.

Thefinalpanel in Table 1 provides thetotal

number

of

HBCU

and

TWl

observationsin each

sample. Italsoprovides

some

detailsontheincompleteobservations.

As

asolutiontothe largenumber

of observations withatleastone missingvariable,

we

turnalloftheexplanatoryvariables intoaseriesof

indicator variablesbased onranges ofthe values ofthese variablesand includeseparate indicators for

missing responses toeachvariable. The bottompanel alsoreportsonthe

number

of observations with

missing

wage

information. Thesubsequentanalysisimplementsa standardselectioncorrectionapproach

toaccountforthesecases

(Heckman

1979).

V.

The

Causesand ConsequencesofAttending

HBCUs

inthe

NLS

and

B&B

DataFiles A. The Causes ofAttending

HBCUs

Table2presentsa seriesofestimatesofthedetenninantsof

HBCU

attendance.Thespecifications

estimatedareoftheform:

(1)

HBCU,

=

a

+

pX.''""^

+

yX.''^^-^''"^^^

+

e,

,

where

HBCU

isadichotomousvariable thatequalsoneifthestudent attendsan

HBCU

andzeroifnot,

X

°' " _{denotes an aiTay of}

variables which proxy for a student's

home

environment, and

X/™

^°

''^''denotes pre-college characteristics of each student. In all instances, weighted Probit

regressionsareusedandthe coefficientsreportedaremarginaleffectsevaluatedatthesamplemean.The

weightsare thesampleweightsinthe relevant datafile.

The

interpretationofanycoefficientisthe effect

ofthatcoefficient relative to theomitted category

when

allother variables areheldattheirsample mean.

The

home

environment variables that

we

include are family income, mother and father's

education,andwhetherornotastudent livesintheSouth.Familyincome,measuredin 1972dollars,is

dividedinto4categories:<$3,000,S3000

-

$6000,$6000-$9000,and$9000+basedonasurvey question

describedintheprevioussection.Parentaleducation(motherandfather,independently)ispartitioned into

threecategorical variables: lessthan aBachelor's degree, aBachelor's degree,and greater. Whetheror

notastudent livesintheSouthisa

dummy

variable thattakesonthevariableofoneiftheanswerisyes.

Pre-collegecharacteristicsinclude

SAT

and

ACT

scores,high school

GPA,

and whetherornot astudent

attendeda privatehigh school.

Combined

SAT

scoresaredividedintolessthan 600,between600-800,

andgreaterthan800.

ACT

scoresaredividedupsimilarly, lessthan11,between11 and15,andgreater

than15.Highschool

GPA

ismeasured onafour pointscaleandisdividedinto lessthan2.5, 2.5 to3.5,

andgreaterthan3.5.

We

alsoincludeanindicator forwhethertherespondentisfemale.

In 1972,students

who

attend

HBCUs

have lower

SAT

and

ACT

scoresand are more likelyto

probabilityofattendingan

HBCU

by 32%. Similarly,moving froman

ACT

score ofless than 11 toa

scoreofmorethan 15 reducesthelikelihoodof attending an

HBCU

by21%. Students

who

liveinthe

Southare

43%

more likely to attend

HBCUs,

holding all elseconstant. Family income and parental

education are not statistically related to

HBCU

attendance once our other covariates are taken into

account.

In the 1990s,thingschange. Standardizedtestscores arenolongersuchapowerfulpredictorof

HBCU

attendance.Parentswithmoreeducationaremorelikely tohavechildren

who

attend

HBCUs.

All

else equal, a studentwhose motherhas morethan abachelor'sdegreeis28%)morelikely toattendan

HBCU.

This is notsurprising, as these institutions have a long histoi-y ofloyal alumni and familial

legacies(Drewiy and

Doermann

2001). ResidingintheSouth continuestobe an importantdeteraiinantof

college choice, though the magnitude ofthe coefficient is roughly a fourth ofthe magnitude in the

seventies.Privatehighschoolisnegativelycon'elatedwith

HBCU

attendance.

Therearemarked differencesbetweenthedeterminantsof

HBCU

attendancein the 1970sand

1990s. The most obvious explanation ofthese differences is that conditioning on degree completion

selects forhighability studentsand

among

this set,differencesbetweenthetwoperiods willdisappear.

Comparing colmnns2and3intable2

we

can

make

directcomparisonsbetweenthe70sandthe 90s;each

sampleconsistsonlyofdegi^eecompleters.

Intuition suggests that as resistance to black attendance at

TWIs

faded and the need for

segregated schoolingdeclines,thosewiththehighest opportunitycostof such schoolingwilloptoutand

choosemoretiaditionaluniversities. Inotherwords,itmightbe reasonabletoexpecta"brain drain"from

HBCUs.

Yet, the data

show

the opposite to be true.

Lower

academic credentials are not as highly

predictiveof

HBCU

attendanceinthe1990sasthe1970s.Studentswith highereducated parentsaremore

likely toattend

HBCUs

inthe1990sandhigheracademiccredentials arenotasstrongapredictorof

non-HBCU

attendance.This providesevidenceofa selectionoftalentedBlackstudents into

HBCUs

inrecent years.

B.EconometricApproachtoEstimatingtheConsequences ofAttending

HBCUs

In the absence of a randomized experiment or a credible instrumental variable for

HBCU

attendance,

we

implementfourstatisticalapproachesto adjustforpre-collegedifferencesbetween

HBCU

and

TWI

attendees. This subsectiondetailsthese strategies.

Thefirstand simplestmodel

we

estimateisa linear specificationofthefonn:

(2) outcome,

=

p^+

pX

.""'"""

+ oXr"""'"' +

5HBCU

+

f,

.

Inallinstances, theestimationisdone usingweightedleastsquares, withweightscoiTcspondingtothe

sample weights providedinthe data. Equation (2)is a simple and easily inteipretable

way

to obtain

estimatesofthe effectof

HBCU

attendanceonoutcomes, butitreliesona linearmodeltocontrol for the covariates Xj"""""^ and ^.'"^-"'^s^_ This

may

be unappealing since their true functional form is

unknown.

As

a solution,

we

match

HBCU

and

TWI

students with similar predicted probabilities or

propensity scores(p-scores)of

HBCU

attendance(Rosenbaum and Rubin1983).^ Theestimated p-scores

compress themulti-dimensional vectorofcovariates intoanindex. Theadvantages ofthe propensity

score approach aretwofold. First, itisa feasiblemethodtocontrol forobservables inamoreflexible

manner than is possible with linear regression. Second, it provides an opportunity to focus the

comparisons ofoutcomesbetweenthe

HBCU

and

TWI

attendees

among

thosewithsimilar distributions

ofthe obsei'vables. Since

we

modelallofthecovariateswithindicatorvariablestheformer advantageis

notsocompellingin thissetting,butthelatterisa real asset here. Finally,itisimportantto emphasize

thatjust as with linear regression, the identifying assumptionis thatassignmentto the treatment(i.e.,

HBCU

attendance) is associated only with observable pre-period variables. This is often called the

ignorable treatmentassignment assumptionor selectiononobservables.

We

implement thep-score matching strategy inthree steps. First, the estimated p-scores are

obtainedbyfittingprobitregressionsfor

HBCU

attendance(identical toequation1 above),using X!""^"""

and Xj'^'^'^"

'^^'^

as explanatoiy variables. In other words,

we

try to replicate the average student's

selection rulewith theobsei"ved covariates.

We

then conducttwo teststo ensurethatthep-scores are suitable.For bothtests,

we

dividethe sampleinto quintilesbasedontheirp-scores. In thefirsttest,

we

assesswhethertheestimated p-scoresareequal acrossthe

HBCU

and

TWI

studentswithinquintiles. In the secondtest,

we

examine whetherthemeansofthecovariates areequalfor thetwosetsofstudents

withineachquintile. Ifthe nullhypothesisofequalityisrejected for eithertest,

we

dividethe qunitiles

and/orestimatea richerprobitmodel byincludinghigher order termsandinteractions.' Oncethe nullis

acceptedforbothtests,

we

proceedtothenextstep.

Second,the"treatmenteffecfforagivenoutcomeiscalculatedby comparingthe differencein

theoutcome between

HBCU

and

TWI

studentswithsimilaror"matched"valuesofthep-score.

We

do

this intwoways. Thefirstcalculates atreatmenteffect foreach

HBCU

student forwhichthereisatleast

one

TWI

studentwith an estimated p-score within 0.10 ofthe

HBCU

student's p-score. Incaseswhere

multiple studentshavep-scoreswithin0.10,

we

take thesimpleaverageofoutcomeacrossallofthese

students.Further,thismatchingisdonewithreplacement sothat individual

TWI

studentscanbeusedas

An

alternativeistomatchonasingle (orpossiblyafew)crucial Govariate(s).SeeAngristandLavy(1998)or

Rubin(1977)for applications.

'_SeeDehejiaandWahba(2002)andRosenbaum(1984)formoredetailsonhowtoimplementthepropensity score

method.

controls formultiple

HBCU

students. Thesecondmatching approach usesallofthe

TWI

students to

fomi acontrol for each

HBCU

student but in calculating the average

among

them

we

use akernel

weighted average,wheretheweightisinversely proportionaltothe distanceto the

HBCU

student's

p-score.

We

useaGaussian kernel withabandwidthof0.10.

Third,asingletreatment effectisestimatedbyaveragingthetreatmenteffectsacrossall

HBCU

students forwhichtherewasatleastonesuitablematch. Thisapproach hasthedesirablepropertythatit

focusesthecomparisonswherethereisoverlapinthe distributionof propensityscores

among

the

HBCU

and

TWI

studentssothese students are"similar.""

We

also implementtwoothereconometric approachestoaccountforpotentialselection issues.

First,

we

estimateprobits forwhetherthe

wage

variableismissingonthesample ofobsei'vationswith

missingand non-missing

wage

values.

We

then includetheinverseMill's ratiofromthese probits in

equation(2) toaccountforthe possibility thatwages arenotmissingatrandom

(Heckman

1979). This

procedure is identifiedfrom afunctionalformassumption, since

we

areunaware ofa validexclusion

restrictionin thissetting.

Second,the available data sets

may

not includemeasuresof

some

attributes (e.g., strength of

essay,motivation,and teacherrecommendations)thatpersuadeadmissions committeestoselectcertain applicants foradmissionthatarealsorewardedinthelabormarket. Further,these attributes

may

differ

across

HBCU

and

TWI

students.Theleastsquaresand propensityscoreapproachesrelyon"selectionon

observables"assumptionsandwillproduce biasedestimatesin thiscase.

To

confrontthissourceofmisspecification,

we

implementavariantofthemethodpioneeredby

DaleandKrueger(2002)thatmatchesstudentsbasedonthecolleges wheretheywereaccepted. This

approach can onlybeimplementedwiththe

NLS

datafile,as

B&B

does not contain informationonthe

setsofcollegestowhichindividuals areadmitted.

We

operationalize theDaleandKruegerapproachby

detenniningthe identityofthecolleges thatacceptedeachstudent.

Among

thecollegeswheretheywere

accepted,

we

find themidpoint ofthe 25th-75thpercentile

SAT

range reportedin

US

Nev.'s

&

World

Report(2006).

We

use current

SAT

scores since scoresfrom 1972 are unavailable. Forcolleges that

reportonly

ACT

scores,

we

usean equivalencescaletoconvertto

SAT

scores.

For each student,

we

recordthe highestmidpoint

SAT

score ofany college that acceptedthe

student.

We

dividethestudents intofourgroupsbyquartilesoftheschoolwiththehighestmidpoint

SAT

among

the schoolswhere they wereadmitted.

We

then include separate indicators for each ofthese

groups inequation (2). This approachmitigates the impact of any confounding due tocharacteristics

'"

SeeDehejiaand

Wahba

(2002)andHeckman,Ichimura,andTodd(1998)onpropensity score algorithms. " Ifthereare heterogeneous treatment effects, thisstrategy produces an estimate ofthe average effectofthe

"treatmentonthe treated".

obsei-vable to admissions officers that are notmeasiu'ed in the dataset. Specifically, the identifying

assumptionisthat afteradjustmentfor theavailable covariates, thedecisiontoattend a

HBCU

versus a

non-HBCU

withina quartileis"ignorable" ororthogonaltounobserved determinants of outcomes. See DaleandKrueger(2002)for amoredetaileddiscussionofthisapproach.

Finally,

we

note that

we

considered a number of candidate instrumental variables, such as distance to a student's nearest

HBCU,

residingintheSouth,or theclosingof

HBCUs,

butin allcases

we

were unconvincedthattheexclusionrestrictionwasvalid or theinstruments werenotpowerfulenough

forthe relativelysmallsamples inthe available datafiles. Withapproximately300 observations,itis very difficult to constmct an instmment with apowerful first stage. Consequently, thorny issues of

selection

may

stillremain.

C.EstimatesoftheConsequences ofAttending

HBCUs

DistributionofEstimated P-Scores. Figures1 and2 presentseparatekerneldensity plotsofthe

estimated propensityscores forblackstudents thatreceiveddegreesfrom

HBCUs

and

TWIs

with the

NLS

and

B&B

datafiles,respecdvely.

To

obtainthese figures,weightedprobitswereestimatedonthe

setofstudents

who

completedtheirbachelor'sdegreeatan

HBCU

orTWI.InFigure1,whichisbasedon

the

NLS

data,it is evidentthat the

mean

propensity scorediffers across thepopulations, but there is

substandal overlapinthe distributions,exceptatp-scoresexceeding roughly0.9. Thedistributionsof

p-scoresinthe

B&B

aremoresimilarthroughoutabroader range ofthe p-score. However,there aren'tany

TWI

students with p-scores greater than about 0.8. Thus, it will be difficult to obtain meaningful

comparisonsforthe relativelysmall subsetof

HBCU

studentswith p-scoresinthisrange.

Wage

Outcomes. Table 3 presents results ofthe effect of attending a

HBCU

on the natural

logarithm ofwages from the four approachesinthe six columns. The estimated standard errors are

reportedinparenthesesbelowthepoint estimatefor the

HBCU

indicator. In the

NLS

entriesinPanels

A

andB,thestandardeiTorsallowforclustering

among

observationsfromstudents thatattendedthesame

high school (exceptin column 5). In Panel A,the treatment ismatriculationat a

HBCU,

whileitis

graduationfroma

HBCU

inPanel B. Forthe

B&B

entries inPanel C,

we

reportstandarden-ors that

allow for unspecified heteroskedasticity in the variance-covariance matrix. Underneath the standard

eiTors,

we

report the R-squaredstatistic,aswellas the

number

ofstudentsin

HBCUs

and

TWIs

inthe relevantsample. Forthe

NLS,

wagesaremeasuredin 1986

-

fourteen yearsafterhigh school graduation

and roughly 10 yearsafterobtaining a bachelor'sdegree. In the

B&B,

wagesare in 1997,fiveyearsafter

completionofthebachelor's degree.

Column

1reports the

mean

differenceinlabormarketwagesfor individuals

who

attend

HBCUs,

without adjustment for any controls. In the

NLS,

HBCU

students earn roughly

5%

less

when

the

treatment isthefirstcollege attendedand 11.5%

when

itisreceiptofa bachelor'sdegree. Neither of

these estimates is statisticallydifferent from zero atconventional levels. The

B&B

estimate fromthe

1990sindicates that

HBCU

graduates earn16.6%lessthan

TWI

graduates. Recall,Table1 demonstrated

that on observable dimensions

HBCU

students have lesser academic credentials than their

TWI

counterparts(especiallyintheNLS),sotheserawgapsare likely

downward

biased.

Column

2reports the resultsfromestimatingequation(2).Theadjustmentfortheacademicand

home

environmentcontrolschangesthe resultsinthe

NLS

dramatically.'"The

wage

benefitof attendinga

HBCU

inthe1970sis11.1%

when

HBCU

statusisbasedonthefirstcollegeattendedand6.0%

when

it

isdefinedasreceivingabachelor'sdegree. ThefoiTnerestimateismarginallysignificant,whilethelatter

hasan associatedt-statisticlessthan1.'^ In the

B&B,

however,the

wage

effect forattending

HBCUs

is

-13.8%)andthe nullof zerowouldberejectedwith conventionalcriterion.'''

The

nexttwocolumnsreportontheimplementationofthep-scoremethodtotestthe sensitivity

ofthese resultsto the linearmodel.

Column

3 uses kernel matching, while column4relies on radius

matching.'^ Standard errors for both matching estimates were bootstrapped (200 iterations), with

propensity scoresrecomputedforeach bootstrap sample. Further, thep-scorematching estimatesarenot

weighted withthesampleweights.

Thep-score estimates are remarkablysimilar tothose from the linearregressionin column 2.

This finding shouldn't be teixibly sui"prising because equation (2) models the covariates flexibly,

neverthelessitisreassuringthatfunctionalfomiissuesdon'tappear importantin thissetting.

Column

5presentsestimatesthatare selectioncorrectedformissingwagesand adjustedforthe

full setofcovariates. It seemsplausible that

HBCU

attendanceiscoiTelatedwithselectivewithdrawal

fromthelabor force. Thispossibilityisnotsupportedbythedata asthisapproachproduces unimportant

changeintheestimatedimpact of

HBCUs

onwages.'

'^

_A

similar resultwas foundinConstantine (1995).

'^_Resultsaresimilarifone implementsa "fractionmethod,"using individualtranscripts tocalculate the fractionof

astudent'scollegeexperiencethatwasspentatan

HBCU.

'^_Inthemost

recentwaveofthe

B&B

(B&B

2003)thereisnowagegapbetween

HBCU

studentsand

non-HBCU

students.Unfortunately,

53%

ofthe

HBCU

sampledoes nothavevalidwagesinthelatersurvey(someareinthe survey and unemployed while others were dropped completely).

HBCU

graduates have a 9.6% higher

unemployment rate, and median regression techniques provide identical results to the 1997 wave. Thus,

we

concentrateonthe earlierwavewithmore completedata.

''

Observations with estimated p-scoresthatare notstrictly between and 1 are dropped. Further, welose 7

observationsinthe

NLS

whenthetreatmentisfirstcollegeattendedand21whenthetreatmentisdegreecollege,

and21observationsinthe

B&B

whenimplementingtheradiusmatchingestimatorsduetooutliersthatdidnothave

matchesintherelevant range.

"

_We

alsoassessedtheimpact of labormarketdropoutsonour estimates withasimple re-weightedlinearregression

andmedianregression. In thefirstapproach,weestimateaprobitofwhetherornot

we

havevalidwages onallof

thecovariatesinTable2.

We

then multiplied thesamplingweightbytheinverseof the predicted probabilityinthe

probit togetnewweights. Linear regressionsarethen esrimatedwith thesenewweights. Thisapproach led to

remarkably similar conclusions as the selection correction approach. Median regressions were estimated by

Column

6implementsthecolumn2specificationbut addscontrols forthe"best"schoolthatthe

studentwasadmittedto inordertoaccountforthe richerdataavailable toadmissionscommittees (Dale

and Krueger2002). Specifically,

we

includeindicators for the threehighestquartilesof

SAT

scoresof

thebestschoolthatthestudentwasadmittedto,leavingthelowestquartile as theexcluded group. This

methodis onlypossible in the

NLS

dataand inthis sampleitdoubles estimatedimpact of attendinga

HBCU

to 22.5%. Specifically, this approach suggeststhat the gains from

HBCU

attendance

may

be

larger than indicated by the other methods. However, the estimate's imprecision makes definitive

conclusionsunwarranted.

Additionally,

we

conducteda

number

oftests forwhethertherewasheterogeneityinthe returns

toattendinga

HBCU,

whicharereportedinAppendixTable2.

We

assessedwhetherreturns differed

with students'

home

region (i.e., South versus North), their estimated propensity score,

SAT

Score, parental education,andgender. In general,thereisn'tsubstantialevidence of heterogeneity acrossthese

subsamples ofstudents. Theloneexception isthatthe returnstoattending a

HBCU

appear higherfor

black

women

thanforblack

men

inthe

NLS

sample. It isalsoimmediately evidentthatsubdividingthe

sampleistoodemandingofthedataasthestandarderrors in thesubsamplesare

much

larger.

Overall, these resultssuggestthatattendingan

HBCU

conferredremarkable advantageson its

students in the 1970s. Conventional estimates of the average return to college are

10%

per year

(Heckman, Lochner and

Todd

2003). Attending a

HBCU

versus a

TWI

in the 1970s was roughly

equivalent to one more year ofschooling. In contrast, more recent

HBCU

attendees appear to be

suffering awagepenalty. Ifthepointestimates aretakenliterally,thereisnearly a

-25%

swing inthe relativereturnof

HBCU

attendanceinjusttwodecades.

Non-wage

outcomes. Thus far

we

have concentrated onthe effect of attendinga

HBCU

on a singleoutcome: labormarketwages.Thevalueof attending

HBCUs,

however,likelyextends wellpast

labormarketconsiderations.Theconventional

wisdom

isthatthese institutionsinstillconfidenceintheir

students,a senseofresponsibility,andprovideenvironmentsfreeof racismanddiscriminationthatallow

for greaterpersonal development. Such environmentsare likely to have

many

benefits beyond those

capturedinwages.

Table 4 explores the effect of attending

HBCUS

on a number ofoutcomes, including the

probability offull-timeemployment, measures oflifesatisfaction, andaseries ofacademicoutcomes.

Thesewiderangingoutcomeswerechosen because oftheireconomic andsocialrelevanceaswellas their

comparability across datasets. The academic outcomes indexis the first principal component ofthe

dummy

variables for majoring in business, majoring in physical science/mathematics/computer

imputingzerostoallmissingwageobservations. Qualitativeconclusionswere thesame,thoughthecoefficients

weresmallerasexpected.

science/engineering, majoring in biological science/liealth, receiving a bachelor's degree, attending

graduateschool,andreceiving agraduatedegree. Thecoefficientsreportedinthe table are fromkernel

matchingestimatesandtheirassociated bootstrapped standardeiTors. Inallcases,weightedleastsquares

confrnntheseresults.

The moststriking finding fromtheseoutcomes isthat

HBCU

matriculationisassociatedwith a

nearly

10%

increaseintheprobabilityof receivingabachelor'sdegree. Itisevidentthat partofthe

wage

gaininthe1970sisduetotheincreasedprobabilityof graduatingfromcollege. Thereis

some

evidence

thatstudents

who

attend

HBCUS

aremodestlymorelikely tomajorinphysicalsciences. Interestingly,

HBCU

and

TWI

matriculatesreport similardegreesoflifesatisfaction.Therearenegligible effectsonall

other outcomes.

VI.

A

Focused

Look

atthe

Most

Elite

HBCUs

There issubstantial qualityvariation

among

theset of 89 4-year

HBCUs,

aswell as

among

the

TWIs.

To

thispoint,

we

haveanalyzedthe

NLS

and

B&B,

whichare nationallyrepresentative datafiles

thatincludethefullspectrumof

HBCUs

and

TWIs

fromthe qualitycontinuum.Inthissection,

we

takea

more focused look at four of the most elite

HBCUs:

Morehouse, Xavier, Spellman, and Howard.

(Importantly, the 1989datasetdoes not include infonnation on Spellman and

Howard

students.)

One

limitationofthis exercise isthatduetothe

C&B's

sampling approach,thesefour

HBCUs

can only be

comparedtothethirtyselective

TWIs

inthesample.

Table5reportsonthedetenninantsof attendanceforelite

HBCUs

forthe 1976and 1989 cohorts

of

C&B

fromestimatingequationsidenticaltothoseinTable 2."

Column

(1)isasampleofindividuals

in all4

HBCUs,

column(2)drops

Howard

andSpelmansothat

we

can

make

directcomparisons withthe

1989 cohortwhich is displayedin column (3). Thepatternsacrossthe columns are quite similar. The

parametersonthestandardizedtestscores are themostnotableresults.Evaluatedatthesamplemean,the

difference betweena

SAT

score oflessthan600and a

SAT

scoreabove 800impliesa40.1%decrease

(colunm2)inthelikelihoodof attending anelite

HBCU

inthe1976 cohort anda63.1%decrease(column

3)in the 1989cohort.

ACT

scoreshave a similar effect on

HBCU

attendance.Mother's education is

positivelyassociatedwith

HBCU

attendancein 1989. Afteradjustmentfor theacademiccharacteristics, the incomevariables are not reliable predictorsofelite

HBCU

attendance. Residing in the southern

portion ofthe United States continues to be a strongpredictor of

HBCU

attendance; increasing the

probabilityof attendancebyroughly 40%.'^

'^_Throughout

the

C&B

analysis,thetreatmentisdefinedasenrollmentata

HBCU,

notgraduationfromone. For

consistency withtheothertables,

we

refer tothetreatmentas"firstcollege",althoughduetotheC&B'ssampling

schemeitispossible (but unlikely)that arespondentwasinitiallyenrolledata differentcollege oruniversity.

'*_The

Figures3 and4plotthe distributionsoftheestimated propensity scoresforthe

HBCU

and

TWI

attendeesfromthe 1976 and 1989

C&B

classes, respectively.

Howard

andSpelman were dropped from

this analysisto

make

thesamplesconsistent. Itisapparentthatthereisn'tsubstantialoverlapacross the

twodistributionsineither year, especiallyin1989. Thisfindingconfirmstheimpressionfromtheprobit

resultsthattheacademiccredentialsofthese students differinimportantways.

The pooroverlapofthe distributionsposes challengesfortheoutcomesanalysis. Forexample,in

thepropensityscore exercisewhere

we

require the

TWI

students tohave p-scores within0.1 ofthe

HBCU

student, itis apparentthat

we

willrelyon asmall subset ofthe data. Inthis subsetofthe data, the selectiononobservablesassumption

may

beespeciallyunlikelytobevalid.

On

theotherhand,

we

can useleastsquaresfunctional forniassumptionsto infercounterfactualsinpartsofthe distributionwhere

there is littlesupport. Neitherapproach isespecially appealing, which underscores thedifficulties of

infeiTingtheimpact of

HBCU

matriculationin thissample.Consequently,the forthcoming resuhs should

beinterpretedwiththeseimportant caveatsinmind.

We

now

turn toan exploration ofthe effectof attendingelite

HBCUs

onlabormarket outcomes,

measuresoflifesatisfaction,andacademic outcomes fromthe1976 and1989

C&B.

One

majorbenefitof

the

C&B

database is the availability of detailed questions about life outcomes, beliefs, college

experiences, labormarket outcomes and experiences, politicaland civicengagement, and more.These

rich questions can helptoshedlightonthe overall experience ofstudentsattending

HBCUs

and

non-HBCUs.

For both cohorts, data on the majority ofoutcomes was obtained in 1995, 15 years after

graduationforthe earlycohortand2yearsaftergraduationforthelatercohort,thoughsomedatasuchas

wages in the 1989 cohort were collected in 1996. Individuals without valid

wage

obsei"vations are

dropped fromthesample.

Becausethenumberofpotentialdependentvariablesin

C&B

issonumerous,

we

construct five indicestobetterunderstandtheexperiencesof

HBCU

studentsalongthefollowingdimensions:objective

academic, subjectiveacademic, labormarket, leadershipandlifestyle, andsocial interactions. Thedata

appendix describesthe specificquestionsusedto

make

upthese indices.Eachindexisobtainedbytaking

thefirstprincipalcomponentofthe setofvariablesdescribed.Thisapproach hastwo main advantages.

First,principalcomponentsanalysisreducesthedimensionality of problemsbyextracting theportionofa setofvariables thatexplain themost variance withinthe set.Second, itensuresthatallvariables are

measured onthesamescale. Thecostisthatthe result'smeaningisn'ttransparentand cannoteasilybe

appliedtodifferent settings.

Table 6reportsthe resultsof estimatingthe effectof

HBCU

attendanceon oursetofwage and

non-wage outcomes fromkernelmatching,whichcanbecomparedto theresults incolumn3 of Tables3

the1989sample.

and4.

Column

1 includesallfour

HBCUs

inthe 1976 sample.

Column

2also reports resultsfromthe

1976 samplebut only includes students

who

attendedMorehouse and Xaviertofacilitatecomparisons withthe1989cohort,whoseresultsarereportedincolumn3.

Inthe 1976cohort,

HBCUs

graduateswere

9%

morelikely tomajorinthe biologicalsciences

and 11.1% morelikely tomajorinbusiness,but

10%

less likely to attendgraduate schooland,conditional

onattending, 13.6%less likely to receiveadegree.

On

objectiveacademicoutcomes,

HBCU

students are significantly negative, though their subjective view ofthe academic experience is quite positive.

Leadershipand lifestylecomponentsofthe

HBCU

experienceare large, whichisconsistentwith

much

thathas been written on these institutions (Drewey and

Doennan

2001). Social interactions are also

statisticallysignificantandsubstantively large.Thelabormarket experiencesare positive,butnegligible.

Studentsdonotseemtopossessa particular taste forsegregation, as

HBCU

graduatesarenomorelikely

to live inmoreracially

homogenous

zipcodes.And,

HBCU

graduatesarenomorelikelytobeengagedin

political, religious, civil rights, social service, or philanthropicactivities. Theclearestevidence ofthe

importance of

HBCUs

isthat,controlling forallother factors,

HBCU

students are 1

8%

more likelyto

reporttheywouldchoosethesamecollege again.

The

1989 cohortreports differentexperiences.Studentsaremorelikely tomajorinphysicaland

biologicalsciencesandbusiness.Studentscontinuetobenefitfromleadershipandlifestylecomponentsof

HBCUs,

butthemagnitudesofthese effects are lessthan one-fourthoftheirpreviouslevels.

Many

ofthe

otherpositiveelements turnnegativeinthemorerecent cohort.Theobjectiveandsubjectiveacademic

outcomesarenegativeand

HBCU

matriculates are

10%

lesslikely toreceive a bachelor'sdegree.The

social interactions index, which was positive in the 1976 cohort, tiuTis sharply negative in the 1989

cohort.Thetabledemonstratesthatthisdeclineisalso substantialinthreeofthevariables that areusedto

constmcttheindexin 1976and 1989.Thelabormarketexperiences ofthelatercohortareevenmore

negative,andtheyseemto havea taste forsegregation.

HBCU

attendanceisassociatedwithliving ina

zipcodethathas a

16%

higherfractionofblacks.

Most

telling,

HBCU

students arelesslikelythan

non-HBCU

students to report they would choose the same college again, although the difference isn't statisticallysignificant.

Interestingly,

HBCU

studentsin the latercohortare significantly more likelytobe engaged in

activities which are associatedwith civic consciousness. This

may

partly explain the divergence in

19 wages.

VII.Reconciling the Differencesbetweenthe1970sand1990s

A.AssessingtheDifferencebetweenthe1970s

and

1990sResults

"

We

are grateful toLaniGunierforpointing outthispossibility.

Panel

A

of Table 7summarizesthe difference inthe results betweenthe 1970s and 1990s. It

reportsregressionresultsfor fiveofthekeydependentvariablesexaminedabove.

The

differenceisthat

we

usethestacked1970 and 1990datasets toestimate thefollowingequation:

(3) outcome!,= Po+y,X/"^=""

+

a, x,r-'°"'<''

+

X l(HBCUi,)

+

51(1990,,)

+ei(HBCUi,)-l(1990i,)+Si,,

wheretheisubscriptindexesanindividualandthetsubscriptrevealswhethertheobservationisfroma

1970sor1990scollege student. Theparametervectorsy and a havetsubscripts indicating thattheyare

allowedtodifferfor 1970s and 1990scollege attendees. Theequationalsoincludesseparate intercepts

forattendinga

HBCU

and whethertheobservationisfroma1990s collegeattendee. Theparameter of

interestis 9,whichisassociated withthe interactionbetweenthe

HBCU

indicatorandtheindicator foran

observation from the 1990s. This parameter is a difference in differences (DD) estimate of

HBCU

attendanceandisequaltothe differenceofthecross-sectional

HBCU

estimates(e.g.,column2inTable

3).^"

Incolumn(1),thedependentvariableisthenaturallogarithmof wages. Forthisregression, the nationally representative

NLS

and

B&B

data files areused.

The

otherseven dependentvariables are

taken from the 1976and 1989

C&B

samples, which focused on asubsetofelite

HBCUs

andTWIs.

Howard

and Spellmanattendeesaredroppedfi-omthesample,just as incolumn(2)ofTable6.

The

results summarize the change in the relative returns to

HBCU

attendance over the two

decades. Thefirstfour"objective"outcomes(i.e.,thosewherea higher value ofthedependentvariable

wouldbe considereda positive)suggestthatthereturnsto

HBCU

attendance havedeclined. Specifically,

thepoint estimatessuggest a

20%

declineinwages,a

13%

deplineinthe fractionofstudents

who

would

attend thesamecollegeagain, andsubstantialdeclinesintheleadershipandsocialinteractions indices.

The

other three"objective" outcomes, which measure political participation, social/civic sei-vice, and

donationsto national charities, all

show

anincrease betweenthetwo

C&B

classes. Thenon-objective

measure indicates that

HBCU

attendees

became

less likely to live inintegratedneighborhoods. It is

noteworthythatallofthese estimates areeconomicallyandstatisticallysignificant.

B.RobustnessoftheResultthat

HBCUs

'Performance Worsened betweenthe1970s

and

1990s

This subsectionreportsonsomechecksthataimtoexploretherobustnessofthebasic result that

the economic returns to attending a

HBCU

declined.

Many

obvious explanationsfail to explainthe differences.

We

have ensured,throughthe useof Federal Interagency Committee on Educationcodes, thatthe definitionof

HBCUs

isconsistent across datasetsand overtime.Moreover,theaddifionofmore

^^_The

_C&B

_{results are}

notidentical tothedifferencebetweenthe 1989 and 1976resultsinTable 6 becausethat tablereportsonthekernelmatchingresults,while Table7 reliesonleastsquaresadjustmentforthecovariates.