Inequality has been a hot topic for many years, with the likes of Thomas Piketty’s bestseller Capital In The 21st Century bringing the topic to the top of the global agenda again when it was published in 2013.  It’s a situation that new research from Stanford University believes has a long and historic history, with education the key ingredient.

The paper goes back to the start of the 20th century and explores the link between education and income.  It draws upon around a dozen nationally representative datasets covering college enrollment and completion, and income tax data.  The researchers believe their work is among the first to explore this link over such a long period of time.

The analysis found that both income and educational inequality moved in unison throughout the 20th century.  The paper reveals that inequality in both college enrollment and completion began to rise in the 1930s and 1940s, at much the same time as income inequality began to rise.

Both then fell during the 1950s and 1960s, before rising again up until the late 1980s, where income inequality reached its peak.  It’s a journey that the researchers believe highlights the levels of collegiate inequality that has not been seen in a generation.

“Long story short, the findings reveal that longstanding worries about income inequality and its relationship to college opportunity are warranted,” the researchers say.

A notable exception to this trend was during the Vietnam War, during which collegiate inequality was very high at the same time that income inequality was low.  This high inequality in college enrollment and completion was significantly worse among men than it was among women, with the researchers suggesting the war was a major factor.

They hope that the research will underline the key connection between our income and our educational opportunities, and in turn will better inform policy efforts to reduce inequality and provide better opportunities for disadvantaged people.