Elise S. Brezis - Polarization in Higher Education and Technological

Journal article

Elise S. Brezis, Amir Rubin
Department of Economics, Bar-Ilan University, 2025 Apr, p. 38

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.5200545

Cite

APA Click to copy
Brezis, E. S., & Rubin, A. (2025). Polarization in Higher Education and Technological Leadership, 38. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5200545

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Brezis, Elise S., and Amir Rubin. “Polarization in Higher Education and Technological Leadership” (April 2025): 38.

MLA Click to copy
Brezis, Elise S., and Amir Rubin. Polarization in Higher Education and Technological Leadership. Bar-Ilan University, Apr. 2025, p. 38, doi:10.2139/ssrn.5200545.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{elise2025a,
  title = {Polarization in Higher Education and Technological Leadership},
  year = {2025},
  month = apr,
  institution = {Bar-Ilan University},
  pages = {38},
  school = {Department of Economics},
  doi = {10.2139/ssrn.5200545},
  author = {Brezis, Elise S. and Rubin, Amir},
  month_numeric = {4}
}

Abstract

This paper highlights the role of polarization in higher education as a key factor to technological leadership as well as to labor market inequality.

Higher education polarization refers to the widening gap between elite and nonelite universities, primarily in two dimensions: institutional quality and the tightness of student recruitment. This paper introduces a model to analyze the impact of polarization and presents new indices that measure polarization within the higher education system.

The model emphasizes that disparities in university quality and recruitment tightness influence a country's technological leadership. Specifically, nations with a high "polarization gap" in higher education tend to lead in technology but also experience higher levels of inequality.

In the empirical analysis, we construct indices that measure the polarization gap both in quality and tightness of recruitment as well as an index for leadership in technology. These indices are a new contribution to the field of higher education. The findings reveal a positive correlation between the polarization gap, technological leadership, and inequality among OECD countries.

In consequence, this paper shows that a nation implementing a public education policy, which establishes a significant dichotomy between top-tier universities and standard ones, may stimulate progress and technological leadership, at the price of inequality.

Keywords: ability, polarization, skills, productivity, higher education, technological leadership, inequality