DP19814 Climbing the Ivory Tower: How Socio-Economic Background Shapes Academia

• Ran Abramitzky Lena Greska Santiago Pérez Joseph Price Carlo Schwarz Fabian Waldinger
28 Dec 2024

We explore how socio-economic background shapes academia, collecting the largest dataset of U.S. academics’ backgrounds and research output spanning seven decades. We find that individuals from poorer backgrounds are severely underrepresented, especially in the humanities and at elite universities. The socio-economic composition of academics has remained remarkably constant over time. Father’s occupation predicts professors’ discipline choice and, thus, the direction of research. While we find no differences in the average number of publications, academics from poorer backgrounds are both more likely to not publish at all and to have outstanding publication records, making them riskier hires. Academics from poorer backgrounds also introduce more novel scientific concepts, but are less likely to receive recognition, as measured by citations and Nobel Prize nominations and awards.