Choices in tertiary education

Abstract

The literature on intergenerational mobility has for long recognized the importance of education as the key intermediate factor (Breen and Jonsson, 2005; Erikson and Goldthorpe, 2002). The main findings resulting from this research are that there is a large increase in educational mobility, which, in time, facilitates also the class mobility across generations. Results, however, are not uniform across countries and have been demonstrated to depend on the country's structure of schooling and its influence on transitions between levels of education for different social origins (Muller and Karle, 1993).

In this project, We study whether parental education affects the choice of tertiary education in Spain. We analyze two qualitative characteristics of the university studies: the length of the program and its academic prestige. We identify for which individuals parental background matters the most. For the choice of a long program, parental background changes the most likely outcome for students with low grades in the academic track and those with excellent grades in the vocational track. Regarding the prestige of the program, parental background matters the most for the worse performing boys and the girls with rather good grades in the academic track.

References:

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Erikson, R., & Goldthorpe, J. H. (2002). Intergenerational Inequality: Sociological Perspective. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16, 31.

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