"Highlights costs of inadequate education, attaching hard numbers to the relationship between educational attainment and critical indicators as income, health, crime, dependence on public assistance, and political participation. Explores policy interventions to boost the education system's...

This paper investigates the relationship between aspirations and inequality in higher education participation. Using a regression discontinuity design, I evaluate the impact of a nationwide UK policy aimed at raising aspirations towards college education in pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds...