Volume 26, Issue 1 p. 70-90
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT

Patterns and determinants of intergenerational educational mobility: Evidence across countries

Hanol Lee

Hanol Lee

Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

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Jong-Wha Lee

Corresponding Author

Jong-Wha Lee

Economics Department, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Correspondence

Jong-Wha Lee, Economics Department, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea.

Email: jongwha@korea.ac.kr

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First published: 09 August 2020
Citations: 2

The authors thank Li Gan, Nancy H. Chau, Tatsuo Hatta, Charles Horioka, Yoko Niimi, Harry X. Wu and a variety of seminar participants for helpful comments.

Funding information: The research is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 230410004005040120, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics).

Abstract

This study analyses the patterns and determinants of the intergenerational persistence of education attainment. Internationally comparable data are used by age cohort for parentsʼ and childrenʼs education levels for 30 countries. The intergenerational regression coefficients are estimated by explicitly considering the bias from the censored regressor, and they show that educational mobility has worsened over generations in most countries. However, the degree of change varies considerably across countries and over time. Country-cohort panel regressions are performed using the estimates of intergenerational educational mobility and covariates. The results show that intergenerational educational mobility tends to decrease with income inequality, inflation and credit constraints. However, it increases with per capita GDP and public expenditure on primary education relative to that on tertiary education.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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