The Incredible Shrinking Middle Class: An Analysis of Class Polarization in 229 U.S. Metropolitan Areas

As my time in graduate school continues, my research within political science has expanded to yet another subfield: Urban Politics. Keeping with the theme of conducting research at the urban level, rather than at the federal or international level, for this latest research paper (linked below) I looked at variation in the size of the lower, middle, and upper class in 229 U.S. metropolitan areas and explored the effect of factors related to educational attainment, the number of people whose degrees were in particular fields of study, and the size of the manufacturing sector (among other variables) on class size in 2014 and the net change in class size from 2000 to 2014. My findings were many and varied, but if you want the quick version, just read the intro and the conclusion. But if you're feeling especially adventurous (and have nothing better to do...) go ahead and read the whole thing ;).

Among the more comforting findings from my analysis was the positive relationship I found between the size of the adult population (25 years of age and older) whose first degree was in the liberal arts and history and the size of upper class. While this finding doesn't necessarily mean that people who majored in these fields are more likely to have upper class employment, as someone who majored in history at a Christian liberal arts school for my undergrad, I'm choosing to be hopeful in light of this discovery!

article: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS

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