Countries differ in the way in which they organise their education systems. With this special issue, we want to pay particular attention to the period of secondary education, the different institutional approaches that countries pursue during that phase and the long-term consequences for individual labour-market outcomes that follow from it. Secondary education is probably the … Read more
Educational differentiation in secondary education and labour-market outcomes
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
Hur viktig är familjebakgrunden för ekonomiska utfall? En jämförelse av fyra ansatser
Artikeln granskar fyra ansatser att studera familjebakgrundens betydelse för de ekonomiska utfallen inkomst och utbildningsår. Föräldrars och barns inkomster och utbildning samvarierar positivt, men sambanden förklarar bara en liten del av variationen i ekonomiska utfall och är i liten utsträckning kausala. Den starka kopplingen mellan syskons utfall ger däremot skäl att tro att familjebakgrunden, i … 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
Trends in Absolute Income Mobility in North America and Europe
This paper looks at trends in social mobility in eight wealthy countries and finds significant differences between them. It compares the real incomes of parents and children born between 1960 and 1987, linking the two generations where possible. Where this is not possible, absolute movements between generations are inferred by combining information on moves up … Read more
Measuring educational inequality of opportunity: pupil’s effort matters
This research uses a specially-designed survey in secondary schools in rural Bangladesh to look at the role of student effort in educational achievements and as a factor in overcoming disadvantage and inequality. The researchers looked at the test results of Bangladeshi schoolchildren in mathematics and English and evaluated the importance of effort relative to their … Read more
Inequalities in Children’s Experiences of Home Learning during the COVID-19 Lockdown in England
This paper combines novel data on the time use, home-learning practices and economic circumstances of families with children during the COVID-19 lockdown with pre-lockdown data from the UK Time Use Survey to characterise the time use of children and how it changed during lockdown, and to gauge the extent to which changes in time use … Read more
Estimation of intergenerational mobility in small samples: evidence from German survey data
Using data from the German socio-economic panel, this paper provides new evidence on intergenerational mobility in Germany by focusing on intergenerational association in ranks—i.e. positions, which parents and children occupy in their respective income distributions. We find that the association of children’s ranks with ranks of their fathers is about 0.242 for individual labor earnings … Read more
Formal differentiation at upper secondary education in Finland: subject-level choices and stratified pathways to socio-economic status and unemployment
This paper looks at how Finnish students’ track placement at upper secondary school is associated with their later-life socio-economic status and probability of unemployment using high-quality full population register data. The study finds that choosing advanced maths – in a system where students are given the freedom to make their own subject-level decisions – leads … Read more
Does tracking really affect labour-market outcomes in the long run? Estimating the long-term effects of secondary-school tracking in West Germany
This paper investigates to what extent track attendance in secondary education affects labour-market prospects of West German individuals with similar starting conditions. The article also focuses on whether track attendance has a role in widening social inequality. Using pooled data from two panel studies on West Germans born between 1964 and 1986, the researchers investigate … Read more