IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp446.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Der Einfluss des Einkommens der Eltern auf die Schulwahl

Author

Listed:
  • Thorsten Schneider

Abstract

The impact of parents' education and social position on their children's educational career is very well known for Germany. However, there is little research on the influence of parental income. The costs of longer-lasting school tracks and the financial opportunities of the parents are crucial in models on educational choice. This article examines the connection between income and school tracking, looking at the transition from primary school to one of the three main types of German secondary schools, using the data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) from the years 1984 to 2003. The analysis shows that a good income position fosters thetransition into the top level "Gymnasium", hinders the shift into the lowest level "Hauptschule", and has hardly any effect on the middle level "Realschule". However, the impact of income is relatively small compared to that of parental education. Income during early childhood has a stronger effect than income at the time of deciding on a school. It might be that a good economic position at earlier ages leads to an advantageous development. The study can not definitely confirm the claim made by educational choice theory, that costs really are important at this early point in the German educational system.

Suggested Citation

  • Thorsten Schneider, 2004. "Der Einfluss des Einkommens der Eltern auf die Schulwahl," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 446, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp446
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.42558.de/dp446.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker & Nigel Tomes, 1994. "Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 257-298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. 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).
    3. SOEP Group, 2001. "The German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) after More than 15 Years: Overview," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 70(1), pages 7-14.
    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. Müller, Sven & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Haase, Knut, 2008. "Travel-to-school mode choice modelling and patterns of school choice in urban areas," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 342-357.
    2. Simon Fietze & Elke Holst & Verena Tobsch, 2011. "Germany’s Next Top Manager: Does Personality Explain the Gender Career Gap?," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 22(3), pages 240-273.
    3. Marcus Tamm, 2007. "Does Money Buy Higher Schooling? Evidence from Secondary School Track Choice in Germany," RWI Discussion Papers 0055, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    4. Tamm, Marcus, 2008. "Does money buy higher schooling?: Evidence from secondary school track choice in Germany," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 536-545, October.
    5. repec:zbw:rwidps:0055 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Mahler, Philippe & Winkelmann, Rainer, 2004. "Single Motherhood and (Un)Equal Educational Opportunities: Evidence for Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1391, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Büchler, Theresa, 2012. "Studierende aus nichtakademischen Elternhäusern im Studium: Expertise im Rahmen des Projektes "Chancengleichheit in der Begabtenförderung" der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung," Arbeitspapiere 249, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    8. Freier, Ronny & Simmler, Martin & Wittrock, Christian, 2021. "Public good provision and local employment – Evidence from grammar school closures in East Germany," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    9. Giesselmann, Marco & Windzio, Michael, 2014. "Paneldaten in der Soziologie: Fixed Effects Paradigma und empirische Praxis in Panelregression und Ereignisanalyse," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 66(1), pages 95-113.

    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. Jake Anders, 2012. "What's the link between household income and going to university?," DoQSS Working Papers 12-01, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    2. Tamm, Marcus, 2008. "Does money buy higher schooling?: Evidence from secondary school track choice in Germany," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 536-545, October.
    3. Daniel D. Schnitzlein, 2008. "Verbunden über Generationen: Struktur und Ausmaß der intergenerationalen Einkommensmobilität in Deutschland," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 80, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Winkelmann, Rainer, 2006. "Parental separation and well-being of youths: Evidence from Germany," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 197-208, April.
    5. Alejandra Cattaneo & Sandra Hanslin & Rainer Winkelmann, 2007. "The Apple Falls Increasingly Far: Parent-Child Correlation in Schooling and the Growth of Post-Secondary Education in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 143(II), pages 133-153, June.
    6. John Ermisch & Marco Francesconi & Thomas Siedler, 2004. "Intergenerational Economic Mobility and Assortative Mating," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 448, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Mahler, Philippe & Winkelmann, Rainer, 2004. "Single Motherhood and (Un)Equal Educational Opportunities: Evidence for Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1391, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Heineck Guido & Riphahn Regina T., 2009. "Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment in Germany – The Last Five Decades," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(1), pages 36-60, February.
    9. Schnitzlein, Daniel, 2008. "Verbunden über Generationen: Struktur und Ausmaß der intergenerationalen Einkommensmobilität in Deutschland (Structure and extent of intergenerational income mobility in Germany)," IAB-Discussion Paper 200801, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    10. Rune V. Lesner, 2016. "The Long-Term Effect of Childhood Poverty," Economics Working Papers 2016-08, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    11. Wolter, Stefan C. & Coradi Vellacott, Maja, 2002. "Sibling Rivalry: A Look at Switzerland with PISA Data," IZA Discussion Papers 594, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Schnitzlein Daniel, 2009. "Struktur und Ausmaß der intergenerationalen Einkommensmobilität in Deutschland / Structure and Extent of Intergenerational Income Mobility in Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(4), pages 450-466, August.
    13. Wolter, Stefan C., 2003. "Sibling Rivalry: A Six Country Comparison," IZA Discussion Papers 734, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Arnaud Chevalier & Colm Harmon & Vincent O’ Sullivan & Ian Walker, 2013. "The impact of parental income and education on the schooling of their children," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    15. Elizabeth M. Caucutt & Lance Lochner & Youngmin Park, 2017. "Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, or Constraints: Why Do Poor Children Perform so Poorly?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(1), pages 102-147, January.
    16. Hermann, Zoltán, 2005. "A helyi munkaerőpiac hatása a középfokú továbbtanulási döntésekre [The local labour markets effect on decisions to enter secondary-level education]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 39-60.
    17. Grossmann, Volker, 2008. "Risky human capital investment, income distribution, and macroeconomic dynamics," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 19-42, March.
    18. John C. Bluedorn & Elizabeth U. Cascio, 2005. "Education and Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Purerto Rico," Economics Papers 2005-W21, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    19. M. Shahe Emran & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Yajing Jiang & Yan Sun, 2023. "Occupational dualism and intergenerational educational mobility in the rural economy: evidence from China and India," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(3), pages 743-773, September.
    20. Dimitrios Varvarigos, 2020. "Cultural Transmission, Education-Promoting Attitudes, and Economic Development," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 37, pages 173-194, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Choice; Stress theory; School tracking; Family income; Social origin;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    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:diw:diwwpp:dp446. 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: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.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.