IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rpo/ripoec/v98y2008i4p3-38.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Culture and the Family: An Application to Educational Choices in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Paola Giuliano

    (UCLA, NBER, and IZA Los Angeles)

Abstract

In this essay we show that family background is crucial in determining the choice of high school in Italy. It is the choice of high school that then determines subsequent academic performance. The evidence suggests that graduating from a general high school increases the probability of attending university, whereas no effect can be found for family background. The fact that the majority of students with a poor family background tend to go to technical schools, following family suggestions, has an impact in prolonging the low level of educational mobility and leading to a low rate of college graduates in Italy.

Suggested Citation

  • Paola Giuliano, 2008. "Culture and the Family: An Application to Educational Choices in Italy," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 98(4), pages 3-38, July-Augu.
    • Handle: RePEc:rpo:ripoec:v:98:y:2008:i:4:p:3-38
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rivistapoliticaeconomica.it/2008/lug-ago/paola_giuliano.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giorgio Brunello & Massimo Giannini, 2004. "Stratified or Comprehensive? The Economic Efficiency of School Design," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(2), pages 173-193, May.
    2. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    3. Figlio David & Ludwig Jens, 2012. "Sex, Drugs, and Catholic Schools: Private Schooling and Non-Market Adolescent Behaviors," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 13(4), pages 385-415, December.
    4. David Margolis & Véronique Simonnet, 2002. "Educational Track, Networks and Labor Market Outcomes," Working Papers 2002-60, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    5. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano, 2010. "The power of the family," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 93-125, June.
    6. G. Boero & A. Mcknight & R. Naylor & J. Smith, 2001. "Graduates and graduate labour markets in the UK and Italy," Working Paper CRENoS 200111, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    7. Paola Giuliano, 2007. "Living Arrangements in Western Europe: Does Cultural Origin Matter?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(5), pages 927-952, September.
    8. Alessandra Fogli & Raquel Fernandez, 2009. "Culture: An Empirical Investigation of Beliefs, Work, and Fertility," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 146-177, January.
    9. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    10. Daniele Checchi & Tullio Jappelli, 2002. "School choice and quality," Departmental Working Papers 2002-28, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    11. William N. Evans & Robert M. Schwab, 1995. "Finishing High School and Starting College: Do Catholic Schools Make a Difference?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 941-974.
    12. repec:eme:rlepps:v:18:y:1999:i:1999:p:115-140 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Lorenzo Cappellari, 2004. "The Effects Of High School Choices On Academic Performance And Early Labour Market Outcomes," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2004 92, Royal Economic Society.
    14. Neal, Derek, 1997. "The Effects of Catholic Secondary Schooling on Educational Achievement," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 98-123, January.
    15. Jenkins, Stephen P. & Schluter, Christian, 2002. "The Effect of Family Income During Childhood on Later-Life Attainment: Evidence from Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 604, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Antecol, Heather, 2000. "An examination of cross-country differences in the gender gap in labor force participation rates," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 409-426, July.
    17. Dustmann, Christian, 2001. "Parental Background, Primary to Secondary School Transitions, and Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 367, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Filippin, Antonio & Paccagnella, Marco, 2012. "Family background, self-confidence and economic outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 824-834.
    2. Enrico Conti & Silvia Duranti & Carla Rampichini & Nicola Sciclone, 2015. "Quanto conta l?effetto scuola nel ciclo primario? L?efficacia delle istituzioni scolastiche in Toscana," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3), pages 59-84.
    3. Antonio Di Paolo, 2012. "Parental Education And Family Characteristics: Educational Opportunities Across Cohorts In Italy And Spain," Revista de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Estructura Economica y Economia Publica, vol. 20(1), pages 119-146, Spring.
    4. Alessandra Casarico & Luca Micheletto & Alessandro Sommacal, 2015. "Intergenerational transmission of skills during childhood and optimal public policy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(2), pages 353-372, April.
    5. Francesca Modena & Concetta Rondinelli & Fabio Sabatini, 2014. "Economic Insecurity and Fertility Intentions: The Case of Italy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 233-255, May.
    6. Gabriella Berloffa & Francesca Modena & Paola Villa, 2014. "Changing Labour Market Opportunities for Young People in Italy and the Role of the Family of Origin," Rivista italiana degli economisti, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 227-252.
    7. Gabriella Berloffa & Francesca Modena & Paola Villa, 2011. "Inequality of opportunity for young people in Italy: Understanding the role of circumstances," Working Papers 241, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

    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. Lorenzo Cappellari, 2004. "High school types, academic performance and early labour market outcomes," CHILD Working Papers wp03_04, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    2. Moriconi, Simone & Peri, Giovanni, 2019. "Country-specific preferences and employment rates in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-27.
    3. Francesco Giavazzi & Ivan Petkov & Fabio Schiantarelli, 2019. "Culture: persistence and evolution," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 117-154, June.
    4. Alberto Alesina & Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc & Paola Giuliano, 2015. "Family Values And The Regulation Of Labor," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 599-630, August.
    5. Giorgio Di Pietro & Andrea Cutillo, 2006. "Does Attending a Catholic School Make a Difference? Evidence From Italy," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 193-234, July.
    6. Davoli, Maddalena & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2020. "Culture and adult financial literacy: Evidence from the United States," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/20g3idj0jd9iqosvjjdcbu44lu is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Alessandra Fogli & Laura Veldkamp, 2007. "Nature or nurture? learning and female labor force dynamics," Staff Report 386, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    9. Lu, Weijie & Niu, Geng & Zhou, Yang, 2021. "Individualism and financial inclusion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 268-288.
    10. Francesco Giavazzi & Fabio Schiantarelli & Michel Serafinelli, 2009. "Culture, Policies and Labor Market Outcomes," Working Papers 353, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    11. Di Miceli, Andrea, 2019. "Horizontal vs. vertical transmission of fertility preferences," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 562-578.
    12. Bozzano, Monica, 2017. "On the historical roots of women's empowerment across Italian provinces: religion or family culture?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 24-46.
    13. Green, Colin P. & Navarro-Paniagua, María & Ximénez-de-Embún, Domingo P. & Mancebón, María-Jesús, 2014. "School choice and student wellbeing," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 139-150.
    14. Alesina, Alberto & Giuliano, Paola, 2014. "Family Ties," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 177-215, Elsevier.
    15. Cohen-Zada, Danny & Elder, Todd, 2009. "Historical religious concentrations and the effects of Catholic schooling," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 65-74, July.
    16. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2010. "Civic Capital as the Missing Link," NBER Working Papers 15845, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Xu, Xu & Jin, Xin, 2018. "The autocratic roots of social distrust," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 362-380.
    18. Jisoo Hwang, 2016. "The second shift: assimilation in housework time among immigrants," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 941-959, December.
    19. Delia Furtado & Miriam Marcén & Almudena Sevilla, 2013. "Does Culture Affect Divorce? Evidence From European Immigrants in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(3), pages 1013-1038, June.
    20. González, Libertad & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2020. "Gender norms and intimate partner violence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 223-248.
    21. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano, 2011. "Family Ties And Political Participation," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(5), pages 817-839, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    culture; educational choices; family ties;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:rpo:ripoec:v:98:y:2008:i:4:p:3-38. 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: Sabrina Marino (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.