A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Upward Bound Program

Abstract

The private and social benefits and costs of the Upward Bound program are analyzed for white males, white females, nonwhite males, and nonwhite females, using older siblings of the same sex as a control group. Private net benefits are shown to be positive for all four sex-race classifications at discount rates of 5 and 10 percent. Social net benefits are positive at a discount rate of 5 percent, but negative at 10 percent. In addition, rather high rates of college attendance by siblings indicate that the Upward Bound program may function more as a device to identify those rather apt to go to college anyway rather than as a program to help those who would otherwise be very unlikely to go to college.