Winkelmann
Fakultäten » Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät » Volkswirtschaftslehre, Institut für » Prof. Dr. Rainer Winkelmann » Winkelmann
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Intergenerational Transmission of Education in Switzerland | ||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | If one studies how patterns of education in the Swiss population evolved over the last half century or beyond, two observations stand out. First, there is a persistent general trend towards more formal education. Secondly, women have caught up strongly. Indeed, in 2002, women were overrepresented among those completing the university entrance qualification (Matura), and at a rate of 47 percent only slightly underrepresented among those entering university. These developments are of course in no way unique to Switzerland. Qualitatively similar trends can be observed in many countries. One can think of many potential explanations. Some are linked to labor market developments where skill biased technical change and globalisation have increased the skill premia in wages, and made the position of low skilled domestic workers increasingly precarious. Or education may simply be a normal (or even superior) good the demand for which increases with rising income levels. In either case, the government certainly has responded by increasing expenditures in the education sector substantially. Moreover, anti-discrimination legislation and changes in social norms and values have increased female participation above the general trend. Another explanation might be how parental education has interacted with the trend, i.e., how the intergenerational transmission in education levels has evolved over time. Clearly, at any point in time, it is well documented that parental education is a main explanatory factor of own education: the higher the education of the parent, the better – on average – the performance in school and the higher the education of the offspring. For Switzerland, previous analyses are scarce, although it touches upon the central social policy concern of equity in education. This research project is devoted to the empirical analysis of intergenerational transmission of education levels in Switzerland using novel datasets. |
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| Publications / Publikationen | Hanslin, S. and R. Winkelmann (2007) The Apple Falls Increasingly Far: Parent-Child Correlation in Schooling and the Growth of Post-Secondary Education in Switzerland, Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 143, 133-152, 2007. |
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| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
Universität Zürich (position pursuing an academic career) |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Mar 2006 to Mar 2008 |