IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucl/cepeow/23-04.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

First generation elite: the role of school networks

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Cattan

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Kjell Salvanes

    (Norwegian School of Economics)

  • Emma Tominey

    (University of York)

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

  • Sarah Cattan & Kjell Salvanes & Emma Tominey, 2023. "First generation elite: the role of school networks," CEPEO Working Paper Series 23-04, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucl:cepeow:23-04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeow/cepeowp23-04.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2023
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Justine S. Hastings & Christopher A. Neilson & Seth D. Zimmerman, 2013. "Are Some Degrees Worth More than Others? Evidence from college admission cutoffs in Chile," NBER Working Papers 19241, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2013. "Under Pressure? The Effect of Peers on Outcomes of Young Adults," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(1), pages 119-153.
    3. Raj Chetty & Matthew O. Jackson & Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel & Nathaniel Hendren & Robert B. Fluegge & Sara Gong & Federico Gonzalez & Armelle Grondin & Matthew Jacob & Drew Johnston & Martin, 2022. "Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility," Nature, Nature, vol. 608(7921), pages 108-121, August.
    4. Bütikofer, Aline & Ginja, Rita & Landaud, Fanny & Loken, Katrine Vellesen, 2020. "School Selectivity, Peers, and Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 13796, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Massimo Anelli, 2020. "The Returns to Elite University Education: a Quasi-Experimental Analysis," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 2824-2868.
    6. Gordon B Dahl & Andreas Kotsadam & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2021. "Does Integration Change Gender Attitudes? The Effect of Randomly Assigning Women to Traditionally Male Teams," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 987-1030.
    7. Alberto Alesina & Michela Carlana & Eliana La Ferrara & Paolo Pinotti, 2024. "Revealing Stereotypes: Evidence from Immigrants in Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(7), pages 1916-1948, July.
    8. Miles Corak, 2013. "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 79-102, Summer.
    9. Lavy, Victor & Sand, Edith, 2018. "On the origins of gender gaps in human capital: Short- and long-term consequences of teachers' biases," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 263-279.
    10. Nicholas W. Papageorge & Seth Gershenson & Kyung Min Kang, 2020. "Teacher Expectations Matter," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 234-251, May.
    11. Jan Feld & Ulf Zölitz, 2017. "Understanding Peer Effects: On the Nature, Estimation, and Channels of Peer Effects," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(2), pages 387-428.
    12. Joshua D. Angrist & Kevin Lang, 2004. "Does School Integration Generate Peer Effects? Evidence from Boston's Metco Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1613-1634, December.
    13. Orazio Attanasio & Sarah Cattan & Emla Fitzsimons & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2020. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(1), pages 48-85, January.
    14. Gordon B. Dahl & Dan-Olof Rooth & Anders Stenberg, 2023. "High School Majors and Future Earnings," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 351-382, January.
    15. Raj Chetty & John N Friedman & Emmanuel Saez & Nicholas Turner & Danny Yagan, 2020. "Income Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility Across Colleges in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(3), pages 1567-1633.
    16. Cheti Nicoletti & Kjell G. Salvanes & Emma Tominey, 2023. "Mothers Working during Preschool Years and Child Skills: Does Income Compensate?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(2), pages 389-429.
    17. Adrian Adermon & Mikael Lindahl & Mårten Palme, 2021. "Dynastic Human Capital, Inequality, and Intergenerational Mobility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(5), pages 1523-1548, May.
    18. Angela Cools & Raquel Fernandez & Eleonora Patacchini, 2019. "Girls, Boys, and High Achievers," Working Papers 2019-032, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    19. Pekkarinen, Tuomas & Uusitalo, Roope & Kerr, Sari, 2009. "School tracking and intergenerational income mobility: Evidence from the Finnish comprehensive school reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(7-8), pages 965-973, August.
    20. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1553-1623.
    21. Simon Burgess & Ellen Greaves, 2013. "Test Scores, Subjective Assessment, and Stereotyping of Ethnic Minorities," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(3), pages 535-576.
    22. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "Why the Apple Doesn't Fall Far: Understanding Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 437-449, March.
    23. Manudeep Bhuller & Magne Mogstad & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2017. "Life-Cycle Earnings, Education Premiums, and Internal Rates of Return," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(4), pages 993-1030.
    24. Anandi Mani & Emma Riley, 2019. "Social networks, role models, peer effects, and aspirations," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-120, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    25. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2019. "Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 1-47, January.
    26. Victor Lavy & M. Daniele Paserman & Analia Schlosser, 2012. "Inside the Black Box of Ability Peer Effects: Evidence from Variation in the Proportion of Low Achievers in the Classroom," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(559), pages 208-237, March.
    27. Martti Kaila & Emily Nix & Krista Riukula, 2021. "Disparate Impacts of Job Loss by Parental Income and Implications for Intergenerational Mobility," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 53, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    28. Catherine Porter & Danila Serra, 2020. "Gender Differences in the Choice of Major: The Importance of Female Role Models," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 226-254, July.
    29. Shelly Lundberg, 2020. "Educational gender gaps," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(2), pages 416-439, October.
    30. Valerie Michelman & Joseph Price & Seth D Zimmerman, 2022. "Old Boys’ Clubs and Upward Mobility Among the Educational Elite [Do Immigrants Assimilate More Slowly Today Than in the Past?]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 137(2), pages 845-909.
    31. Martin Nybom & Jan Stuhler, 2017. "Biases in Standard Measures of Intergenerational Income Dependence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(3), pages 800-825.
    32. Aline Bütikofer & Kjell G Salvanes, 2020. "Disease Control and Inequality Reduction: Evidence from a Tuberculosis Testing and Vaccination Campaign," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(5), pages 2087-2125.
    33. Corak, Miles & Lindquist, Matthew J. & Mazumder, Bhashkar, 2014. "A comparison of upward and downward intergenerational mobility in Canada, Sweden and the United States," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 185-200.
    34. David J. Deming & Kadeem L. Noray, 2018. "STEM Careers and the Changing Skill Requirements of Work," NBER Working Papers 25065, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    35. Michela Carlana, 2019. "Implicit Stereotypes: Evidence from Teachers’ Gender Bias," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1163-1224.
    36. Burgess, Simon & Hauberg, Daniel Sloth & Rangvid, Beatrice Schindler & Sievertsen, Hans Henrik, 2022. "The importance of external assessments: High school math and gender gaps in STEM degrees," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    37. Marco Bertoni & Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Cappellari, 2020. "Who benefits from privileged peers? Evidence from siblings in schools," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 893-916, November.
    38. Bütikofer, Aline & Jensen, Sissel & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2018. "The role of parenthood on the gender gap among top earners," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 103-123.
    39. Caroline Hoxby, 2000. "Peer Effects in the Classroom: Learning from Gender and Race Variation," NBER Working Papers 7867, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    40. Tuomas Pekkarinen & Kjell G. Salvanes & Matti Sarvimäki, 2017. "The Evolution of Social Mobility: Norway during the Twentieth Century," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(1), pages 5-33, January.
    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. Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen & Lykke Sterll Christensen & Mikkel H{o}st Gandil & Hans Henrik Sievertsen, 2023. "Playing the system: address manipulation and access to schools," Papers 2305.18949, arXiv.org.
    2. Bjerre-Nielsen, Andreas & Christensen, Lykke Sterll & Gandil, Mikkel Høst & Sievertsen, Hans Henrik, 2023. "Playing the System: Address Manipulation and Access to Schools," IZA Discussion Papers 16197, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Federica Meluzzi, 2024. "The College Melting Pot: Peers, Culture and Women's Job Search," Papers 2409.20225, arXiv.org.

    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. Simone Balestra & Aurélien Sallin & Stefan C. Wolter, 2023. "High-Ability Influencers? The Heterogeneous Effects of Gifted Classmates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(2), pages 633-665.
    2. Francisco Meneses, 2021. "Intergenerational Mobility After Expanding Educational Opportunities: A Quasi Experiment," Working Papers 586, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. Modena, Francesca & Rettore, Enrico & Tanzi, Giulia, 2021. "Does Gender Matter? The Effect of High Performing Peers on Academic Performances," IZA Discussion Papers 14806, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2021. "Gender and Educational Achievement: Stylized Facts and Causal Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 14074, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. de Gendre, Alexandra & Salamanca, Nicolás, 2020. "On the Mechanisms of Ability Peer Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 13938, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Zafar, Rafia, 2022. "Intergenerational Mobility in Income and Consumption: Evidence from Indonesia," SocArXiv uzcfs, Center for Open Science.
    7. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    8. Bobby W. Chung & Jian Zou, 2023. "Understanding spillover of peer parental education: Randomization evidence and mechanisms," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(3), pages 496-522, July.
    9. Thomas van Huizen & Madelon Jacobs & Matthijs Oosterveen, 2024. "Teacher bias or measurement error?," Papers 2401.04200, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    10. Thomas van Huizen, 2021. "Teacher bias or measurement error bias? Evidence from track recommendations," Working Papers 2113, Utrecht School of Economics.
    11. Ulrika Ahrsjö & René Karadakic & Joachim Kahr Rasmussen, 2021. "Intergenerational Mobility Trends and the Changing Role of Female Labor," CEBI working paper series 21-19, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    12. Cools, Angela & Fernández, Raquel & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2022. "The asymmetric gender effects of high flyers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    13. Daniel Borbely & Jonathan Norris & Agnese Romiti, 2023. "Peer Gender and Schooling: Evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 207-249.
    14. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Odermatt, Reto, 2022. "All I have to do is dream? The role of aspirations in intergenerational mobility and well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    15. Marie Connolly & Catherine Haeck, 2024. "Intergenerational income mobility trends in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 5-26, February.
    16. Zhang, Xinmiao & Deguilhem, Thibaud, 2022. "Climbing the Social Ladder: Does Intergenerational Solidarity matter?," MPRA Paper 115241, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Weina Zhou & Andrew J. Hill, 2023. "The spillover effects of parental verbal conflict on classmates' cognitive and noncognitive outcomes," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(2), pages 342-363, April.
    18. Polipciuc, Maria & Cörvers, Frank & Montizaan, Raymond, 2023. "Peers’ race in adolescence and voting behavior," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    19. Federica Meluzzi, 2024. "The College Melting Pot: Peers, Culture and Women's Job Search," Papers 2409.20225, arXiv.org.
    20. Kristoffer Berg & Morten Håvarstein & Magnus E. Stubhaug, 2024. "Meritocratic Labor Income Taxation," CESifo Working Paper Series 11058, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Peers; Elite university; Subject choice; Social mobility; Teacher bias;
    All these keywords.

    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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ucl:cepeow:23-04. 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: Jake Anders (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/epucluk.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.