@EdWorkingPaper{ai24-1105,
title = "The Architecture of Expected Wage Gaps: Between- and Within-School Sources of Career Education Inequality",
author = "Kenneth A. Shores, Hojung Lee, Arielle Lentz",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "1105",
year = "2024",
month = "December",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai24-1105",
abstract = {Using administrative data from Delaware and aggregate occupational wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this paper examines expected wage inequality in Career and Technical Education (CTE) by analyzing how student demographics relate to selection into programs of study (POS) with different expected wages. Through multilevel mixed-effects modeling, we find substantial gaps in expected wages across student subgroups, with traditionally disadvantaged students selecting into lower-wage pathways. Our decomposition analyses reveal that gender wage gaps primarily stem from within-school factors, while racial and socioeconomic gaps are largely driven by between-school differences. Investigating potential mechanisms, we find that student selection patterns into POS contribute more to these inequalities than schools' program offerings. These results suggest that policy interventions should be tailored by subgroup: addressing within-school practices for gender gaps while focusing on between-school resources and supports for racial and socioeconomic disparities. The findings demonstrate how early career preferences may contribute to eventual wage inequality and highlight opportunities for targeted early intervention.},
}