Which background factors matter more in intergenerational educational attainment: Social class, cultural capital or cognitive ability?
No 2003-05, CAM Working Papers from University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics Abstract: The sociological research literature on intergenerational educational attainment has highlighted three types of theoretical frameworks in explaining to what extent social origins influences people’s educational choices and possibilities. The three explanatory frameworks are 1) the socio-economic situation in the upbringing, 2) the “cultural capital” of the home (e.g. the level of education of the parents), and finally 3) the cognitive abilities of the individual. While all three explanatory frameworks have been shown empirically to be of significance in explaining people’s educational attainment when analyzed individually or two at a time, then only very few studies have simultaneously included all three frameworks and thus been able to present a coherent picture of the influence of social origins on educational attainment vis-à-vis individual ability. A
