“Hidden Curriculum” Revisited: High School Socioeconomic Composition and Labor Market Outcomes in Adulthood

Nicolo Pinchak , The Ohio State University

How do neighborhoods and schools experienced in adolescence shape labor market outcomes in adulthood? Research on both early life neighborhood and school conditions finds effects for earnings later in life, but it is not clear whether these associations are dependent on educational attainment. Drawing on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and marginal mean weighting through stratification (MMWS) techniques for multi-category treatment effects with observational data, I estimate differences in self-reported wages and workplace autonomy in adulthood among non-college goers who were exposed to, in adolescence 1. neither high-poverty neighborhoods or high-poverty schools, 2. high-poverty neighborhoods but not high-poverty schools, 3. high-poverty schools but not high-poverty neighborhoods, and 4. both high-poverty neighborhoods and high-poverty schools. Most in line with institutional resource perspectives of neighborhood effects, consequences are consistently observed only among respondents who were exposed to both high-poverty neighborhoods and high-poverty schools.

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 Presented in Session 92. School Diversity and Student Outcomes