The aim of this article is to identify the consequences of the stream followed in high school on the professional opportunities of baccalaureate holders at the beginning of their career. By combining the 1995 panel of secondary level pupils with the survey on entry into adult life, we are able to identify the effects that … Read more
Baccalaureate Tracks and Employment at the End of Education: Contribution of the Educational Pathway and Analysis of Gender Gaps
Upper secondary tracks and student competencies: A selection or a causal effect? Evidence from the Italian case
This piece of research examines whether Italian students’ choice of educational track has a causal effect on general skills in reading and mathematics. The research, which relies on a population-level longitudinal dataset, looks at the choices students make at age 14 between four tracks: classical and scientific studies, a general humanistic track, technical, and vocational … Read more
Explaining gender segregation in higher education: longitudinal evidence on the French case
This article asks why gender gaps persist in higher education even though women’s attainment is higher than men’s across the OECD, and even though gender gaps at work are narrowing. Women are still under-represented in subjects such as engineering and computing, and over-represented in human sciences and humanities. The article tests a number of theories … Read more
Relative risk aversion models: How plausible are their assumptions?
This work examines the validity of the two main assumptions of relative risk-aversion models of educational inequality. We compare the Breen-Goldthorpe (BG) and the Breen-Yaish (BY) models in terms of their assumptions about status maintenance motives and beliefs about the occupational risks associated with educational decisions. Concerning the first assumption, our contribution is threefold. First, … Read more
Is vocational education a safety net? The occupational attainment of upper secondary graduates from vocational and academic tracks in Italy
This article assesses the employment and occupational outcomes of upper secondary education graduates from academic and vocational tracks in Italy. In particular, we formulate and test the hypothesis that – contrary to some common expectations – academic graduates outperform vocational graduates at a stage of occupational maturity, even when considering individuals without a tertiary degree. Moreover, we … Read more
Gender segregation in higher education: an empirical test of seven explanations
Gender segregation in higher education (GSHE) is recognized as a key factor to explain the persistence of gender inequalities in the labor market despite the reversal of gender gap in educational attainment. Women are systematically overrepresented in fields of study, such as social sciences and the humanities, which offer relatively poor labor market prospects; at … Read more
Social origins, tracking and occupational attainment in Italy
This study looks at the long-term effects of pupils’ choices between academic and vocational tracks at age 14. It finds that while there is no difference in employability between the two groups, those on the academic track gain advantages even if they do not go on to gain a degree. The analysis is based on … Read more
Social origins, track choices and labour-market outcomes: evidence from the French case
This paper examines the consequences of following an academic versus vocational path in upper secondary school in France in terms of job attainment and earnings at the entrance into the labour market. Using rich nationally representative longitudinal data running from the beginning of secondary education until entrance into the labour market, the researchers identify the … Read more
Educational tracking and long-term outcomes by social origin: Seven countries in comparison
This paper uses longitudinal data from seven countries to assess how systems of educational tracking can impact on social mobility. Studies which simply compare comprehensive and tracked systems may be flawed, the research suggests, because of differences in how countries separate students for instructional purposes. The researchers used large-scale longitudinal data from Denmark, England, Finland, … Read more
Tracking in the Italian Education System
In this report, we provide an overview of tracking, that is the choice of the type of secondary school, in Italy. First, we describe the structure of the Italian education system and its main reforms. We detail broad and curricular tracking both between and within schools. We focus on upper secondary school, since in Italy … Read more