This paper is concerned with the investigation of the intergenerational mobility of education in
several European countries and its changes across birth cohorts (1940-1980) using a new
mobility index that considers the total degree of mobility as the weighted sum of mobility with
respect to both parents. Moreover, this mobility index enables the analysis of the role of family
characteristics as mediating factors in the statistical association between individual and parental
education. We find that Nordic countries display lower levels of educational persistence but that
the degree of mobility increases over time only in those countries with low initial levels.
Moreover, the results suggest that the degree of mobility with respect to fathers and mothers
converges to the same level and that family characteristics account for an important part of the
statistical association between parental education and children’s schooling; a particular finding
is that the most important elements of family characteristics are the family’s socio-economic
status and educational assortative mating of the parents.
Presented by:
Antonio Di Paolo (ISER Visitor, aUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Institut d’Economia de Barcelona (IEB))
Date & time:
December 8, 2010 1:00 pm - December 8, 2010 2:00 pm
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