30202

SoSe 18: Intergenerational Transmission of Advantage

Jan Paul Heisig/Anne Christine Holtmann

Information for students

Exam Seminar paper (c. 3000 words), three short essays (c. 1000 words each), or oral examination (25 minutes).

Comments

Parental education and income matter for their children’s health, education and labor market success. Whereas this is finding is well-established, it is less clear why this is so and how the effects of family background are mediated and moderated by welfare state policies and social environments such as schools and neighborhoods. From a policy perspective, it is an important question how schools and social policies affect the intergenerational transmission of advantage and how the opportunities of disadvantaged children can be improved. Against this background, the seminar will focus on three interrelated sets of questions. First, how can we measure and describe the extent to which family background affects life outcomes? Second, which theoretical explanations or “mechanisms” might account for the association? Third, why is intergenerational mobility higher in some countries than in others? A major focus of the seminar will be on the difficulties of identifying the (causal) effects of different explanatory factors and on research strategies for overcoming them. For example, identifying the impact of school environments on the opportunities of young people is difficult because richer and more educated families not only have more financial and cultural resources that allow them to better support their children at home; they also send their children to better schools. We will discuss whether and how it is possible to identify causal effects of schools, neighborhoods, or social policies on intergenerational mobility, compare different research designs, and develop our own research ideas. After this course, students should be able to critically evaluate the literature on the intergenerational transmission of advantage. They will know relevant datasets and empirical approaches and should be able to develop their own research design to study processes of intergenerational mobility. close