Work

First Generation Elite: The Role of School Social Networks

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: High school students from non-elite backgrounds are less likely to have peers with elite educated parents than their elite counterparts in Norway.We show this difference in social capital is a key driver of the high intergenerational persistence in elite education.We identify a positive elite peer effect on enrolment in elite programmes and on labour market earnings, then disentangle underlying mechanisms.Exploiting a lottery in the assessment system, a causal mediation analysis shows the overall positive peer effect reflects a positive effect on application behaviour (conditional on GPA), which dominates a negative effect on student GPA.We consider implications for income mobility finding that encouraging further mixing between elite and non-elite students in high school could improve mobility across the whole distribution.

Source: Research Explorer (The University of Manchester)

Authors: Tominey, Emma, Salvanes, Kjell, Cattan, Sarah

Language: English

Topic: Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funders: Norges Forskningsråd, Rockwool Fonden, Economic and Social Research Council

Awards: G2422714063, G5574592685, G8131501811, ESRC Institute for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy

OpenAlex ID: W7056701195