The Inheritance of Educational Inequality: International Comparisons and Fifty-Year Trends
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.
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Hertz et al. (2008) find that the intergenerational correlation in years of schooling remained stable over the late 20th century, while the corresponding regression coefficient decreased markedly.
“In a broad analysis of educational mobility in 42 countries, Hertz et al. (2008) find that the intergenerational correlation in years of schooling remained stable over the late 20th century, while the corresponding regression coefficient decreased markedly.”
From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Hertz et al. (2008)
Correlation estimates that abstract from changes in the variance of schooling tend to be more stable over time than those that do not, such as regression estimates.
“In particular, correlation estimates that abstract from changes in the variance of schooling tend to be more stable over time than those that do not, such as regression estimates (Hertz et al. 2008).”
From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Hertz et al. 2008
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Growing Wealth Gaps in Education
Pfeffer, F. T. (2018) · Demography · doi:10.1007/s13524-018-0666-7 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Blanden, J., Doepke, M., & Stuhler, J. (2022) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w29979 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Educational Mobility in the Developing World
Torche, F. (2021) · Social Mobility in Developing Countries · doi:10.1093/oso/9780192896858.003.0007 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
- Authors
- Hertz, T., Jayasundera, T., Piraino, P., Selcuk, S., Smith, N., & Verashchagina, A.
- Affiliations
- American University (US)
- University of Siena (IT)
- Venue
- The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy
- Publisher
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH
- Published
- 2008-01-30
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 1935-1682 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1982972636
- Cited by
- 661
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 46 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 46 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 71.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The B E Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Cultural Dynamics
- Keywords
- educational inequality, intergenerational persistence, educational attainment, intergenerational correlation, educational attainment trends, cross-national comparison, regional variation, Latin America, Nordic countries
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