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First Generation Elite: The Role of School Social Networks

Author

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  • Salvanes, Kjell G
  • Cattan, Sarah
  • Tominey, Emma

Abstract

High school students from non-elite backgrounds are less likely to have peers with elite educated parents than their elite counterparts in Norway. We show this difference in social capital is a key driver of the high intergenerational persistence in elite education. We identify a positive elite peer effect on enrolment in elite programmes and disentangle underlying mechanisms. Exploiting a lottery in the assessment system, a causal mediation analysis shows the overall positive peer effect reflects a positive effect on application behaviour (conditional on GPA), which dominates a negative effect on student GPA. We consider implications for income mobility finding that encouraging further mixing between elite and non-elite students in high school could improve mobility across the whole distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Salvanes, Kjell G & Cattan, Sarah & Tominey, Emma, 2025. "First Generation Elite: The Role of School Social Networks," CEPR Discussion Papers 20004, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20004
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    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP20004
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    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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