The Education Lorenz Curve: Exploring Education and Social Mobility in a Lorenz Curve Framework.

摘要

Within any society the level of social mobility, the distribution of income, and equality of opportunity work together to determine the ease with which a child born into poverty can make it to the middle class during his or her lifetime. Education plays a large part, if not the largest part, in the analysis of these areas within a given society. Therefore, an equal distribution of education among those born into all income levels is one key ingredient to ensuring that all children who are born into poverty get the same chance of succeeding in the workforce as their more privileged peers. Looking at the United States in particular, the levels of education inequality seen among 4-year college graduates are calculated using the NPSAS and are then compared to the levels of income inequality for the graduation years 1993, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. The level of education inequality for each year of analysis is displayed by creating an Education Lorenz Curve and analyzed by calculating the equivalent Education Gini Coefficient for each year.