Inequality in Incomes and Access to Education. A Cross-Country Analysis (1960-90)

In the current debate on the relationship between inequality in income distribution and growth one of the possible link works through the access to education. After reviewing this debate, a formal model show how the imperfection of financial markets makes educational choices dependent on the distribution of family incomes. This leads to two testable predictions in the analysis of aggregate data on school enrolments: a negative (linear) dependence on Gini concentration index on incomes distribution; and a positive dependence on public resources invested in education and/or on skill premium in the labour market. This predictions are then tested on a (unbalanced) panel of 102 countries for the period 1960-90. The main findings of this analysis are that, once we control for the degree of development with the (log of) per capita output, financial constraints seem mainly relevant in limiting the access to secondary education. However, when considering gender differences, there is evidence that female participation to education is more strongly conditioned by family wealth, starting from primary education. On the contrary there is no clear evidence of a relevant impact of invested resources, but at the tertiary level.

Inequality in Incomes and Access to Education. A Cross-Country Analysis (1960-95)

In the current debate on the relationship between inequality in income distribution and growth one of the possible link works through the access to education. After reviewing this debate, a formal model shows how the imperfection of financial markets makes educational choices dependent on the distribution; and a positive dependence on public resources invested in education and/or on skill for the period 1960-95. The main findings of this analysis are that, once we control for the degree of development with the (log of) per capita output, financial constraints seems mainly relevant in limiting the access to secondary education. Finally, there is weak evidence that public resources spent on education raise the enrolment rates.

School Quality and Family Background in Italy

We study if the combined significant reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio and increase in parental education observed in Italy between the end of IIWW and the end of 1980s had a significant impact on the educational attainment and labor market returns of a representative sample of Italians born between 1941 and 1970. We find that the lower pupil-teacher ratio is positively correlated with higher educational attainment, but that the overall improvement of parental education has had an even stronger impact on attainment. We find that the positive impact of better school quality on educational attainment and returns to education has been particularly significant for individuals born in regions and cohorts with poorer family background. Parental education has had asymmetric effects, positive on attainment and negative on school returns. Better school quality also had asymmetric effects on the returns to education, positive for individuals with poor family background and negative for individuals born in regions and cohorts with relatively high parental education. Our evidence suggests that better school quality, measured by a lower pupil-teacher ratio, is a technical substitute to parental education in the production of individual human capital. When school quality and family background are substitutes, an increase of public resources invested in education can be used to reduce the differences induced by parental education.Schhol quality, Family Background

School Choice and Quality

The 1993 Survey of Household Income and Wealth, a representative survey of the Italian population covering 24,000 individuals, reports detailed information on children's attendance of public and private schools and parents' assessments of the quality of public schools in the city of residence. The survey also provides detailed information on the household's demographic structure, income and parents' education. The empirical analysis indicates that the quality of schools is one of the driving factors in the choice between private and public schools. The results are robust with respect to the particular quality indicator used and the presence of fixed provincial effects

Intergenerational Mobility and Schooling Decisions in Germany and Italy: the Impact of Secondary School Tracks.

Intergenerational mobility in income and education is affected by the influence of parents on children's school choices. Our focus is on the role played by different school systems in reducing or magnifying the impact of parents on children's school choices and therefore on intergenerational mobility in general. We compare two apparently similar educational systems, Italy and Germany, to see how the common feature of separate tracks at Secondary School level may produce different impacts on children choices. Using data from a cross-country survey (PISA 2003), we study the impact of parental education on track choice, showing that the greater flexibility of the Italian system (where parents are free to choose the type of track) translates into greater dependence from parental background. These effects are reinforced when moving to post-secondary education, where the aspiration to go to college is affected not only by the school type but also (in the case of Italy only) by parental education. We then move to country-specific data sets (ISTAT 2001 for Italy and GSOEP 2001 and 2002 for Germany) to study the impact of family background on post-secondary school choices: we find this impact is greatly reduced when we control for secondary school tracks. Overall, we estimate large asymmetries by gender, with women's behavior more independent from family backgrounds than men's behavior.gender Secondary School tracks; Education; Intergenerational Mobility

Labour market institutions and the personal distribution of income in the OECD

A large literature has studied the impact of labour market institutions on wage inequality, but their effect on income inequality has received little attention. In this paper we argue that personal income inequality is a function of the wage differential, the labour share, and the unemployment rate. Labour market institutions then affect income inequality through these three channels and their overall effect is theoretically ambiguous. We use a panel of OECD countries for the period 1960-2000 to examine these effects. We find that greater unionization and a higher degree of wage bargaining coordination have opposite effects on inequality, implying conflicting effects of greater union presence on the distribution of income.income inequality, labour share, trade unions

Labour Market Institutions and the Personal Distribution of Income in the OECD

We examine the determinants of differences across countries and over time in the distribution of personal incomes in the OECD. The Gini coefficient of personal incomes can be expressed as a function of the wage differential, the labour share, and the unemployment rate, hence labour market institutions are an essential determinant of the distribution of income, although the sign of their impact is ambiguous. We use a panel of OECD countries for the period 1970-96 to examine these effects. We find, first, that the labour share remains an important determinant of overall inequality patterns, and, second, that stronger unions and a more generous unemployment benefit tend to reduce income inequality. High capital-labour ratios also emerge as a strong equalising factor, which has in part offset the impact of increasing wage inequality on the US distribution of personal incomes.income inequality, labour share, trade unions

Institutional Reforms and Educational Attainment in Europe: A Long Run Perspective

In this paper we analyse the effects of changes in the institutional design of the educational system on school attainment. In particular, we test whether alternative reforms have increased the average educational attainment of the population and whether various deciles of the education distribution have been differentially affected. We constructed a dataset of relevant reforms occurred at the national level over the last century, and match individual information to the most likely set-up faced when individual educational choices were undertaken. Thus our identification strategy relies on temporal and geographical variations in the institutional arrangements, controlling for time/country fixed effects, as well as for confounding factors. We also explore who are the individual most likely affected by the reforms. We also group different reforms in order to ascertain the prevailing attitudes of policy makers, showing that reforms can belong to either "inclusive" or "selective" in their nature. Finally we correlate these attitudes to political coalitions prevailing in parliament, finding support to the idea that left wing parties support reforms that are inclusive in nature, while right wing parties prefer selective ones.education, institutions, reform, family background

Un posto a vita. Analisi di un concorso nazionale a professore universitario di seconda fascia

In questo articolo si analizzano i risultati del processo selettivo che ha avuto luogo durante l'anno accademico 1997-98 e che ha portato alla nomina di 44 professori associati per il raggruppamento P01A (Economia Politica), nei suoi due stadi della ammissione alle prove orali e della dichiarazione a vincitore. L'analisi quantitativa tenta di individuare a posteriori il contributo in termini di probabilità dei titoli esibiti dai candidati, grazie alla codificazione dei titoli scientifici esibiti dai candidati secondo graduatorie di prestigio dei luoghi di pubblicazione degli articoli. I risultati mostrano come la commissione giudicatrice abbia premiato la pubblicazione di lavori su riviste estere come criterio principale nel primo stadio della selezione (ammissione alle prove orali), mentre questo criterio sia stato integrato con la valutazione delle prove orali e con altri criteri (provenienza dei candidati da sedi che bandivano dei posti) nel secondo stadio della selezione (nomina a vincitore). A parità di altre condizioni, i candidati provenienti dalle sedi meridionali sono stati avvantaggiati, mentre quelli provenienti da sedi estere sono stati svantaggiati.

Fair and Unfair Income Inequalities in Europe

This paper analyses the extent of income inequality and opportunity inequality in 25 European countries. The present work contributes to understanding the origin of standard income inequality, helping to identify potential institutional setups that are associated to opportunity inequality. We distinguish between ex ante and ex post opportunity inequality. We find that ex ante equality of opportunity exhibits positive correlation with public expenditure in education, whereas ex post equality of opportunity is also positively associated to union presence and to fiscal redistribution.inequality of opportunity, income inequality