TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Acton, Riley
AU  - Cortes, Kalena E.
AU  - Miller, Lois
AU  - Morales, Camila
        TI  - Distance to Degrees: How College Proximity Shapes Students' Enrollment Choices and Attainment across Race-Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status
        PY  - 2024/Sep/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17338
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp17338
        AB  - Leveraging rich data on the universe of Texas high school graduates, we estimate how the relationship between geographic access to public two- and four-year postsecondary institutions and postsecondary outcomes varies across race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status. We find that students are sensitive to the distance they must travel to access public colleges and universities, but there are heterogeneous effects across students – particularly with regard to distance to public two-year colleges (i.e., community colleges). White, Asian, and higher-income students who live in a community college desert (i.e., at least 30 minutes driving time from the nearest public two-year college) substitute towards four-year colleges and are more likely to complete bachelor's degrees. 
Meanwhile, Black, Hispanic, and lower-income students respond to living in a community college desert by forgoing college enrollment altogether, reducing the likelihood that they earn associate's and reducing the likelihood that they ultimately transfer to four-year colleges and earn bachelor's degrees. These relationships persist up to eight years following high school graduation, resulting in substantial long-term gaps in overall degree attainment by race-ethnicity and income in areas with limited postsecondary access.
        KW  - college accessibility
KW  - college proximity
KW  - college choices
KW  - college enrollment
KW  - college attainment
KW  - associate's degree
KW  - bachelor's degree
KW  - college enrollment patterns
KW  - two-year colleges
KW  - four-year colleges
KW  - public postsecondary institutions
        ER  -