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Parental education and family characteristics: educational opportunities across cohorts in Italy and Spain

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  • Antonio Di Paolo

    (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Campus de Bellaterra, Edifici B 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola), Spain. Institut d’Economia de Barcelona (IEB), Universitat de Barcelona)

Abstract

Drawing on data contained in the 2005 EU-SILC, this paper investigates the disparities in educational opportunities in Italy and Spain. Its main objective is to analyse the predicted probabilities of successfully completing upper-secondary and tertiary education for individuals with different parental backgrounds, and the changes in these probabilities across birth cohorts extending from 1940 to 1980. The results suggest that the disparities in tertiary education opportunities in Italy tend to increase over time. By contrast, the gap in educational opportunity in Spain shows a marked decrease across the cohorts. Moreover, by using an intuitive decomposition strategy, the paper shows that a large part of the educational gap between individuals of different backgrounds is “composed” of the difference in the endowment of family characteristics. Specifically, it seems that more highly educated parents are more able to endow their children with a better composition of family characteristics, which accounts for a significant proportion of the disparities in educational opportunity.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Di Paolo, 2010. "Parental education and family characteristics: educational opportunities across cohorts in Italy and Spain," Working Papers XREAP2010-05, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised May 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2010-05
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    2. Carlos Giovanni González Espitia & Jhon James Mora Rodríguez & Andrés Felipe Cuadros Meñaca, 2014. "Oportunidades educativas y características familiares en Colombia: un análisis por cohortes," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, June.
    3. Carlos Giovanni González Espitia & Jhon James Mora Rodriguez & Andres Felipe Cuadros Meñaca, 2014. "Características familiares y oportunidades educativas en Colombia: Un análisis por cohortes," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 9, in: Adela García Aracil & Isabel Neira Gómez (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 9, edition 1, volume 9, chapter 5, pages 143-158, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    4. Tansel, Aysit, 2011. "Intergenerational educational mobility in Turkey," MPRA Paper 68435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Catalina Bolancé & Zuhair Bahraoui & Ramon Alemany, 2015. "Estimating extreme value cumulative distribution functions using bias-corrected kernel approaches," Working Papers XREAP2015-01, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Jan 2015.
    6. Anna Castañer & Mª Mercè Claramunt, 2014. "Optimal stop-loss reinsurance: a dependence analysis," Working Papers XREAP2014-04, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Apr 2014.
    7. De Donder, Philippe & Martinez-Mora, Francisco, 2017. "The political economy of higher education admission standards and participation gap," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 1-9.
    8. Mercedes Ayuso & Montserrat Guillen & Jens Perch Nielsen, 2019. "Improving automobile insurance ratemaking using telematics: incorporating mileage and driver behaviour data," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 735-752, June.
    9. Fernández Mellizo-Soto, María & Martínez-García, José Saturnino, 2014. "Increasing inequalities: Recent School Failure Trends in Spain," INDEM - Working Paper Business Economic Series 18324, Instituto para el Desarrollo Empresarial (INDEM).
    10. Croci Angelini, Elisabetta & Michelangeli, Alessandra, 2012. "Axiomatic measurement of multidimensional well-being inequality: Some distributional questions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 548-557.
    11. Francesco Vona, 2011. "Does the Expansion of Higher Education Reduce Educational Inequality? Evidence from 12 European Countries," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2011-12, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    12. Antonio Manresa & Ferran Sancho, 2012. "Leontief versus Ghosh: two faces of the same coin," Working Papers XREAP2012-18, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Oct 2012.
    13. Maria Ines Barbosa Camargo, 2015. "Efectos de los mecanismos de financiación en el acceso a la educación superior en Colombia," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 10, in: Marta Rahona López & Jennifer Graves (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 10, edition 1, volume 10, chapter 5, pages 115-134, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Educational Opportunity; Family Background; Birth cohorts; Italy; Spain;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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