In this paper, we analyze the completed highest education degree of two birth cohorts (1934-1943 and 1964-1973) in Switzerland, using data from the 1999 wave of the Swiss Household Panel. As expected, the fraction of tertiary graduates has increased over time, for women more so than for men. Also, the educational attainment depends strongly on the educational attainment of parents. We then decompose the overall trend into a parental background effect, a general expansion effect and a distribution effect. For women in particular, we find that a substantial fraction of the overall increase in participation in tertiary education can be explained by the fact that the gap in participation rates between women with lowly educated parents and women with highly educated parents has narrowed. We then investigate the role of financial constraints in explaining these trends. Although the number of individuals suffering financial hardship during youth has declined over time, logit models show that financial problems have become more important as an impediment for higher education.
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Paper provided by University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute in its series Working Papers with number
0603.
Length: 24 pages Date of creation: Mar 2006 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Swiss Journal for Economics and Statistics 143(2), 133-153, 2007 Handle: RePEc:soz:wpaper:0603
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Gary S. Becker & Nigel Tomes, 1994.
"X. Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families,"
NBER Chapters,
in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education (3rd Edition), pages 257-298
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Daniel Halbheer & Ernst Fehr & Lorenz Goette & Armin Schmutzler, 2007.
"Self-Reinforcing Market Dominance,"
Working Papers
0711, University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Daniel Halbheer & Ernst Fehr & Lorenz Goette & Armin Schmutzler, .
"Self-Reinforcing Market Dominance,"
Working Papers
0094, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU).
[Downloadable!]