College Entry by Blacks since 1970: The Role of College Costs, Family Background, and the Returns to Education

College enrollment of black eighteen-nineteen-year-old high school graduates declined from 1980 through 1984 and then rebounded. This paper presents data from a time series of cross-sections of eighteen-nineteen-year-old youths from 1973 through 1988 to test the role of family background, direct college costs, local economic conditions, and returns to college in driving these trends. The evidence suggests that, on the one hand, increases in direct college costs were driving enrollment rates downward. On the other hand, dramatic increases in average parental education exerted upward pressure on college enrollment by blacks, particularly in the latter half of the decade. Copyright 1994 by University of Chicago Press.