IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mnh/spaper/2547.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The motive for status maintenance and inequality in educational decisions : which of the parents defines the reference point?

Author

Listed:
  • Stocké, Volker

Abstract

Several theoretical approaches assume that the motive for status maintenance, that is the desire to avoid intergenerational status downward mobility, explains educational decisions and effects of the families’ social status hereon. Not much is known about whether this assumption is empirically valid, and it is completely an open question which of the parents’ social status provides the reference point when evaluating educational options with respect to their suitability for status maintenance. We utilize data from the Mannheim Educational Panel Study to test whether the beliefs about how likely secondary school degrees ensure the maintenance of the mothers’ and fathers’ status explain the decision between school tracks leading to these degrees in Germany. We compare the explanatory power of altogether nine measures, assuming the reference status to be determined by different models about how the families’ status is mentally represented. Results have shown that the motive for status maintenance exerts in all versions significant effects on educational decisions. However, it proved to be strongest when the fathers’ status was assumed to define success in avoiding intergenerational status demotion. After controlling for the effect of this measure, direct effects of the families’ educational and occupational status were substantially reduced, but not completely explained.

Suggested Citation

  • Stocké, Volker, 2007. "The motive for status maintenance and inequality in educational decisions : which of the parents defines the reference point?," Papers 07-20, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    • Handle: RePEc:mnh:spaper:2547
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/2547/1/dp07_20.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eskil Heinesen & Richard Davies & Anders Holm, 2002. "The relative risk aversion hypothesis of educational choice," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(4), pages 683-713.
    2. Arleen Leibowitz, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 432-456, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 1995. "The Determinants of Children's Attainments: A Review of Methods and Findings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1829-1878, December.
    4. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Sylvia Korupp & Harry Ganzeboom & Tanja Van Der Lippe, 2002. "Do Mothers Matter? A Comparison of Models of the Influence of Mothers' and Fathers' Educational and Occupational Status on Children's Educational Attainment," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 17-42, February.
    6. Johnson, Daniel, 2002. "Lifetime Earnings, Discount Rate, Ability and the Demand for Post-compulsory Education in Men in England and Wales," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 233-247, July.
    7. Kane, Thomas J, 1994. "College Entry by Blacks since 1970: The Role of College Costs, Family Background, and the Returns to Education," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 878-911, October.
    8. Arleen Leibowitz, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," NBER Chapters, in: Marriage, Family, Human Capital, and Fertility, pages 111-135, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe & James Spaulding, 1991. "Childhood events and circumstances influencing high school completion," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 28(1), pages 133-157, February.
    10. Leibowitz, Arleen, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages 111-131, Part II, .
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stocké, Volker, 2007. "Strength, Sources, and Temporal Development of Primary Effects of Families´ Social Status on Secondary School Choice," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 07-60, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    2. Stocké, Volker, 2007. "Strength, sources, and temporal development of primary effects of families' social status on secondary school choice," Papers 07-60, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    3. Schildberg-Hoerisch, Hannah, 2011. "Does parental employment affect children's educational attainment?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1456-1467.
    4. Ana Rute Cardoso & Elsa Fontainha & Chiara Monfardini, 2008. "Children and parents time use: Empirical evidence on investment in human capital in France, Italy and Germany," CHILD Working Papers wp17_08, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    5. Kan, Kamhon & Tsai, Wei-Der, 2005. "Parenting practices and children's education outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 29-43, February.
    6. James Berry, 2015. "Child Control in Education Decisions: An Evaluation of Targeted Incentives to Learn in India," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1080.
    7. Nicolas Fleury & Fabrice Gilles, 2015. "A meta-regression analysis on intergenerational transmission of education: publication bias and genuine empirical effect," TEPP Working Paper 2015-02, TEPP.
    8. Rumberger, Russell W., 2010. "Education and the reproduction of economic inequality in the United States: An empirical investigation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 246-254, April.
    9. Muriel Meunier & Augustin de Coulon & Oscar Marcenaro-Gutierrez & Anna Vignoles, 2013. "A longitudinal analysis of UK second-generation disadvantaged immigrants," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 105-134, March.
    10. Slawa Rokicki & Mark E. McGovern, 2020. "Heterogeneity in Early Life Investments: A Longitudinal Analysis of Children's Time Use," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(3), pages 647-676, September.
    11. Emilia Del Bono & Marco Francesconi & Yvonne Kelly & Amanda Sacker, 2016. "Early Maternal Time Investment and Early Child Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(596), pages 96-135, October.
    12. Sowmya Dhanaraj, 2015. "Health shocks and the intergenerational transmission of inequality: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India," WIDER Working Paper Series 004, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Ana Cardoso & Elsa Fontainha & Chiara Monfardini, 2010. "Children’s and parents’ time use: empirical evidence on investment in human capital in France, Germany and Italy," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 479-504, December.
    14. Elena Arias Ortiz & Catherine Dehon, 2008. "What are the Factors of Success at University? A Case Study in Belgium," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 54(2), pages 121-148.
    15. de la Croix, David & Doepke, Matthias, 2004. "Public versus private education when differential fertility matters," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 607-629, April.
    16. Jean Luc De Meulemeester & Claude Diebolt, 2004. "The economies of education: unkept promises?," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 47(3-4), pages 303-320.
    17. Moshoeshoe,Ramaele Elias, 2020. "Long-Term Effects of Free Primary Education on Educational Achievement : Evidence from Lesotho," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9404, The World Bank.
    18. Rochat, Denis & Demeulemeester, Jean-Luc, 2001. "Rational choice under unequal constraints: the example of Belgian higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 15-26, February.
    19. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2008. "Maternal employment and adolescent development," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 958-983, October.
    20. Chiswick, Barry R. & DebBurman, Noyna, 2004. "Pre-School Enrollment: An Analysis by Immigrant Generation," IZA Discussion Papers 1226, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mnh:spaper:2547. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Katharina Rautenberg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfmande.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.