The Role of Parental Wealth in Children's Educational Pathways in Germany

In this article, I evaluate whether educational attainment in Germany is stratified by parental wealth and at which transitions stratification emerges. I propose a four-stage model to capture the emergence of stratification in the German education system, which is characterized by early between-school tracking: (i) transition to the tracked secondary school, (ii) attended track in the last year of mandatory schooling, (iii) highest school-leaving certificate, and (iv) transition to vocational or tertiary education. Results suggest that stratification by parental wealth emerges at all four stages, and, therefore, accumulates over the stages. Children living in wealthy households are 20 per cent more likely to attend the highest track in fifth grade and to obtain the highest school-leaving certificate and are 40 per cent more likely to enroll in tertiary education compared to children at the bottom of the wealth distribution. Furthermore, parental wealth seems to be particularly effective in preventing negative outcomes like leaving school without a certificate or not finding a fully qualifying vocational training. Among those who do not obtain the formal requirements to enroll in tertiary education, those with wealthy parents are more likely to start dual vocational training

The Impact of Statistical Discrimination in Shared Housing Markets: A Correspondence Study on Ethnic Discrimination in Germany

Existing research found strong and convincing evidence of ethnic discrimination in housing markets in almost all Western countries (Pager & Shepherd, 2008). This also holds for Germany, where particularly applicants with Turkish or Arabic names face severe discrimination. In large German cities applicants with Turkish names get up to 16 percentage points fewer responses than applicants with German names (Auspurg, Hinz, & Schmid, 2017). However, almost all of these studies look at "traditional" housing markets, where a landlord rents a flat to a family or individuals. Another segment of the housing market is mostly ignored, even though it has become increasingly common: Shared housing. About five million Germans are currently living in shared flats (Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, 2017, p. 12). Discrimination in this market likely differs from other housing markets because of differences in the recruiting process and differences in the rationales and composition of tenants

Wealth gaps in education in Germany

In my dissertation, I evaluate differences in children’s education by parental wealth in Germany using different starting cohorts of the National Educational Panel Study. I find substantial wealth gaps in education, net of differences by other dimensions of socio-economic background and demographics. Wealth gaps in final educational attainment result from the accumulation of wealth gaps at several stages. Particularly important for the accumulation of inequalities are wealth gaps in early achievement, the transition to secondary school tracks, and the transition after leaving secondary school. Wealth gaps in early achievement can partially be attributed to parental investment and neighborhood effects. Moreover, I propose a new approach to explore wealth effects using Generalized Additive Models and the joint distribution of multiple components of wealth. Children in households with no or almost no assets and debt have the worst educational prospects

Wealth Stratification and the Insurance Function of Wealth

This thematic issue examines the insurance function as a mechanism to underlie wealth effects on various outcomes. The articles in this issue shed an innovative light on the insurance function of wealth concerning a range of topics relevant to social stratification and social policy researchers. This editorial provides an overview of the contributions of this thematic issue and highlights some gaps and remaining open questions. Altogether, the contributions suggest that wealth can provide insurance against adverse life events in various contexts. However, this insurance effect depends on welfare state characteristics, wealth portfolios, and the way families handle their wealth

Erwerbseinstieg beschleunigt Erstheirat von Frauen auch in den neuen Bundesländern: ein Kohorten-Vergleich mit Daten des Nationalen Bildungspanels

"Ökonomischer Unabhängigkeit, die insbesondere durch die Aufnahme einer ersten Erwerbstätigkeit im Lebensverlauf markiert wird, kommt auch für Prozesse der Familienbildung eine wichtige Rolle zu. Männer sind häufig nicht mehr die Alleinversorger der Familie. Hingegen gewinnt die Erwerbstätigkeit der Frau durch Veränderungen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt sowie zunehmende Bildungs- und Erwerbsbeteiligung an Bedeutung. Es kann deshalb erwartet werden, dass die Aufnahme einer Erwerbstätigkeit bei Frauen den Zeitpunkt der ersten Eheschließung - zumindest unter marktwirtschaftlichen Bedingungen - beeinflusst. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrages ist es, diese Annahme empirisch für Deutschland zu überprüfen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der speziellen gesellschaftlichen Kontexte der ehemaligen DDR und BRD. Dafür vergleichen wir die Erwerbs- und Heiratsverläufe von zwischen 1944 und 1988 geborenen ost- und westdeutschen Frauen über fünf Geburtskohorten." (Autorenreferat

The long-term consequences of early school absences for educational attainment and labour market outcomes

Absences from school can have negative effects on a child's education, including the loss of teacher-led lessons, peer interactions, and, ultimately, academic achievement. However, little is known about the long-term consequences of school absences for overall educational attainment and labour market outcomes. In this paper, we used data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to study the long-term effects of school absences in late childhood on individuals' educational attainment, social class, unemployment, and earnings at age 42 while adjusting for a comprehensive set of risk factors of school absences. Our findings show that school absences are associated with lower educational attainment and a greater likelihood of non-employment at age 42. Individuals who missed five days of school at age 10 were 5.7% more likely to have obtained no qualifications and 4.2% more likely to be out of the labour force. However, we did not find a significant impact of school absences on individuals’ earnings or time in unemployment after adjusting for risk factors of school absences. Our findings suggest that the negative effects of school absences persist beyond schooling into adulthood. Overall, this study highlights the importance of addressing school absenteeism to promote educational and career success over the life course

Does the impact of pupil absences on achievement depend on their timing?

Using linked data from the Millennium Cohort Study and National Pupil Database (N = 8,139), this study examined how the timing of school absences (years 1 to 11 between 2006 and 2017) affects achievement at the end of compulsory schooling in England. Absences during any school year are harmful to student achievement. However, absences in years 6 (final primary school year) to 10 (penultimate year of compulsory schooling) are between 1.6 and 2.0 times more detrimental to academic performance than in other years. Every school year, authorized absences hurt academic performance as much as unauthorized absences. To test the robustness of our findings, we used comparable data and analytic methods for Wales and reached the same conclusions. Our study points to the importance of addressing absences at every stage of the school year to improve educational achievement for all students, particularly at the transitional stages of primary to secondary school

Trajectories of school absences across compulsory schooling and their impact on children's academic achievement : an analysis based on linked longitudinal survey and school administrative data

Prior research has identified that school absences harm children’s academic achievement. However, this literature is focused on brief periods or single school years and does not consistently account for the dynamic nature of absences across multiple school years. This study examined dynamic trajectories of children’s authorised and unauthorised absences throughout their compulsory school career in England. It investigated the consequences of these absence trajectories for children’s achievement at the end of compulsory schooling. We analyse linked administrative data on children’s absences and achievement from the National Pupil Database and survey data from the Millennium Cohort Study for a representative sample of children born in 2000/2001 in England (N = 7218). We used k-means clustering for longitudinal data to identify joint authorised-unauthorised absence trajectories throughout compulsory schooling and a regression-with-residuals approach to examine the link between absence trajectories and achievement. We identified five distinct absence trajectories: (1) ‘Consistently Low Absences’, (2) ‘Consistently Moderate Authorised Absences’, (3) ‘Moderately Increasing Unauthorised Absences’, (4) ‘Strongly Increasing Unauthorised Absences’, and (5) ‘Strongly Increasing Authorised Absences’. We found substantial differences between trajectory groups in GCSE achievement, even when accounting for significant risk factors of school absences. Compared to ‘Consistently Low Absences’, ‘Strongly Increasing Unauthorised Absences’ reduced achievement by -1.23 to -1.48 standard deviations, while ‘Strongly Increasing Authorised Absences’ reduced achievement by -0.72 to -1.00 SD for our continuous outcomes. ‘Moderately Increasing Unauthorised Absences’ (-0.61 to -0.70 SD) and ‘Consistently Moderate Authorised Absences’ (-0.13 to -0.21 SD) also negatively affected achievement compared to ‘Consistently Low Absences’. Our research underscores the critical importance of examining entire trajectories of absenteeism and differentiating between types of absences to fully grasp their associations with academic outcomes and design targeted interventions accordingly

Understanding School Attendance, Educational Attainment, and Labour Market Outcomes

Pupil absenteeism has long been a challenge in the UK, especially among disadvantaged children, and this has worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic. In England, the absence rate rose from 4.3% in 2018 to 7.2% in 2024, with similar trends in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Socioeconomic disparities in absenteeism have also widened, making it a critical focus for UK education policy. This study explores how absenteeism affects educational attainment and labour market outcomes. Absences are shown to have both short- and long-term negative impacts, with significant negative impacts on national exam performance and future employment prospects. The study finds that absences during key educational transitions, such as from primary to secondary school, are particularly detrimental. While patterns of increasing absences from early primary school onwards are the most damaging, even moderate levels of absenteeism accumulate to harm academic achievement. Both authorised and unauthorised absences equally impact educational outcomes, though unauthorised absences are particularly harmful when they increase over time. The study also found that psychosocial factors, such as educational motivation and risky behaviours, partly explain the negative impact of absenteeism on academic success. The negative effects of absenteeism are consistent across all UK nations and sociodemographic groups, with disadvantaged students more likely to be frequently absent. The findings underscore the need for targeted interventions, such as early support systems, health screenings, and efforts to engage families and schools in addressing absenteeism. Addressing absenteeism at all school stages and across all groups is essential for improving educational and labour market outcomes and breaking the cycle of disadvantage, particularly in the post-pandemic context. In conclusion, addressing pupil absenteeism is essential for enhancing educational outcomes and breaking the cycle of disadvantage. This study provides critical insights for policymakers and educators in the post-pandemic context, emphasizing the need for targeted, stage-specific interventions that address both authorised and unauthorised absences, while also considering the broader psychosocial factors that contribute to absenteeism

The role of energy balance related behaviors in socioeconomic inequalities in childhood body mass index : a comparative analysis of Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Socioeconomic inequalities in childhood Body Mass Index (BMI) are becoming increasingly more pronounced across the world. Although countries differ in the direction and strength of these inequalities, cross-national comparative research on this topic is rare. This paper draws on harmonized longitudinal cohort data from four wealthy countries—Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US)—to 1) map cross-country differences in the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in childhood BMI, and 2) to examine cross-country differences in the role of three energy-balance-related behaviors—physical activity, screen time, and breakfast consumption—in explaining these inequalities. Children were aged 5–7 at our first timepoint and were followed up at age 8–11. We used data from the German National Educational Panel Study, the Dutch Generation R study, the UK Millennium Cohort Study and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal-Kindergarten Study. All countries revealed significant inequalities in childhood BMI. The US stood out in having the largest inequalities. Overall, inequalities between children with low versus medium educated parents were smaller than those between children with high versus medium educated parents. The role of energy-balance-related behaviors in explaining inequalities in BMI was surprisingly consistent. Across countries, physical activity did not, while screen time and breakfast consumption did play a role. The only exception was that breakfast consumption did not play a role in the US. Cross-country differences emerged in the relative contribution of each behavior in explaining inequalities in BMI: Breakfast consumption was most important in the UK, screen time explained most in Germany and the US, and breakfast consumption and screen time were equally important in the Netherlands. Our findings suggest that what constitutes the most effective policy intervention differs across countries and that these should target both children from medium as well as low educated families