How Equal Are Educational Opportunities? Family Background and Student Achievement in Europe and the United States

No 1284, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of family-background characteristics on student performance in the US and 17 Western European school systems. Family background has strong effects both in Europe and the United States, remarkably similar in size. France and Flemish Belgium achieve the most equitable performance for students from different family backgrounds, and Britain and Germany the least. Equality of opportunities is unrelated to countries’ mean performance. Quantile regressions show little variation in family-background effects across the ability distribution in most countries.

Keywords: intergenerational mobility; equity-efficiency tradeoff; TIMSS; family background; student performance; equality of opportunity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2004-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eec, nep-lab and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (71)

Published - published in: Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, 2008, 78 (1), 45-70

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Working Paper: How Equal Are Educational Opportunities? Family Background and Student Achievement in Europe and the United States (2004)
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