Bachelor’s degree attainment is one of the most reliable indicators of an individual’s future economic and social advantage. Four-year college graduates earn more, pay more in taxes, practice healthier behaviors, and are more likely to vote and volunteer. Despite these documented benefits, gaps in BA attainment have widened over time, even as overall rates of attainment increase.
In 2015, the City University of New York launched a new program called Accelerate, Complete, and Engage to improve bachelor’s degree completion rates. A randomized-control evaluation of the program found a nearly 12 percentage point increase in graduation five years after college entry. Despite this compelling evidence, public funding for ACE remains uncertain. Programs like ACE may be disadvantaged during budget cycles, as policymakers weigh quantifiable up-front costs against unquantified future benefits.
This working paper uses the ACE impact estimates, along with national data on earnings, to estimate the expected incremental long-run benefits and costs from CUNY ACE participation, as well as intergenerational benefits to the children of participants. The authors find that net social benefits are large, even under their most conservative assumptions. They estimate net social benefits of nearly $43,000 per CUNY ACE participant, which are primarily driven by greater earnings of participants over their lifetime.