The Inheritance of Educational Inequality: International Comparisons and Fifty-Year Trends

Tom Hertz, American University
Tamara Jayasundera, American University
Patrizio Piraino, University of Siena
Sibel Selcuk, American University
Nicole Smith, American University
Alina Verashchagina, University of Siena

Recipient of the Arrow Prize for Junior Economists

A BEJEAP Advances article.

Abstract

This paper estimates 50-year trends in the intergenerational persistence of educational attainment for a sample of 42 nations around the globe. Large regional differences in educational persistence are documented, with Latin America displaying the highest intergenerational correlations, and the Nordic countries the lowest. We also demonstrate that the global average correlation between parent and child's schooling has held steady at about 0.4 for the past fifty years.

Submitted: March 29, 2007 · Accepted: November 8, 2007 · Published: January 30, 2008

Recommended Citation

Hertz, Tom; Jayasundera, Tamara; Piraino, Patrizio; Selcuk, Sibel; Smith, Nicole; and Verashchagina, Alina (2007) "The Inheritance of Educational Inequality: International Comparisons and Fifty-Year Trends," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy: Vol. 7 : Iss. 2 (Advances), Article 10.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol7/iss2/art10

Related Files

Inheritance_of_Educational_Inequality.zip (1391 kB)
Zip file containing two Stata data sets

 
 
 
 

ISSN: 1935-1682 ©1999-2008 The Berkeley Electronic Press™ All rights reserved.

To submit, subscribe, recommend this journal to your library, or sign up for email alerts, please visit: http://www.bepress.com/bejeap