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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
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    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.

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    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

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