CERP3 contributors: Jasob Jabbari, Yung Chun, Grace DeHorn and Xueying Mei
Chun, Yung and Jabbari, Jason and Mei, Xueying and DeHorn, Grace, Does Educational Attainment Impact Geographic and Social Mobility? A Novel Examination of Migration and Residential Attainment (September 05, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5448074 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5448074
Research on spatial mobility following postsecondary education often focuses narrowly on a single region, institution, or degree type. To address this gap, we use comprehensive educational attainment data from the National Student Clearinghouse linked with administrative earnings, employment, and demographic records from a national credit bureau. We examine whether and how diIerent types of credentials and degrees relate to spatial mobility (intra-and inter-regional), how employment outcomes mediate these relationships, and whether mobility results in residential attainment and neighborhood change. We find that advanced degrees are associated with increased interregional mobility in the short term and more gradual intra-regional moves. Mediation analyses confirm that inter-regional mobility is often triggered by new employment, while intra-regional mobility is more closely tied to earnings gains, reflecting slower processes of residential upgrading. We also find that geographic mobility can produce social mobility, though through distinct mechanisms by race. White individuals tend to relocate across regions into more diverse but less educated neighborhoods, whereas BIPOC individuals more often achieve residential attainment and upward mobility through intra-regional moves to whiter, more educated suburban areas. These findings reveal how racialized opportunity structures shape divergent pathways of gentrification and suburbanization following postsecondary credential attainment.