The “income inequality hypothesis” holds that rising income inequality affects the distribution of a wide range of social and economic outcomes. Although it is often alleged that rising income inequality will increase the advantages of the well-off in the competition for college, some researchers have provided descriptive evidence at odds with the income inequality hypothesis. In this paper, we track long-term trends in family income inequalities in college enrollment and completion (“collegiate inequalities”) using all available nationally representative datasets for cohorts born between 1908 and 1995. We show that the trends in collegiate inequalities moved in lockstep with the trend in income inequality over the past century. There is one exception to this general finding: For cohorts at risk for serving in the Vietnam War, collegiate inequalities were high, while income inequality was low. During this period, inequality in college enrollment and completion was significantly higher for men than for women, suggesting a bona fide “Vietnam War” effect. Aside from this singular confounding event, a century of evidence establishes a strong association between income and collegiate inequality, providing support for the view that rising income inequality is fundamentally changing the distribution of life chances.

“收入不平等假说”认为，收入不平等的加剧会影响广泛的社会和经济成果的分配。尽管人们经常声称，收入不平等的加剧将增加富裕阶层在大学竞争中的优势，但一些研究人员提供的描述性证据与收入不平等假说不一致。在本文中，我们利用 1908 年至 1995 年间出生群体的所有可用的全国代表性数据集，追踪了大学入学和毕业期间家庭收入不平等（“大学不平等”）的长期趋势。我们表明，大学不平等的趋势是同步变化的随着过去一个世纪收入不平等的趋势。这一普遍发现有一个例外：对于有可能在越南战争中服役的群体来说，大学不平等程度很高，而收入不平等程度很低。在此期间，男性在大学入学和完成学业方面的不平等明显高于女性，这表明存在真正的“越南战争”效应。除了这一奇异的混杂事件之外，一个世纪的证据证实了收入与大学不平等之间存在密切的联系，为收入不平等加剧正在从根本上改变生活机会分配的观点提供了支持。