Devaluation May Mitigate the Financial Benefits of Expanding Access to Computing Education (Poster 25)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Fifteen
  In Poster Session: Devaluation May Mitigate the Financial Benefits of Expanding Access to Computing Education

Abstract

A longstanding social issue in computing education is the absence of people from underrepresented groups in computing. Initiatives aimed at opening up computing opportunities are motivated in large part by the belief that such education facilitates the acquisition of high-paying computing jobs, thus lessening structural inequity. However, devaluation theory suggests broadening participation in computing would degrade computing occupation wages, limiting the extent of financial returns of a computing education. Using panel data on 26 computing occupations over 17 years, we find evidence consistent with diversification in a field depressing even white men’s wages, as devaluation theory predicts.

Authors

• Kathleen Isenegger, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Christopher Perdriau, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Paul Bruno, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Colleen M Lewis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author