Parental Income and the Choice of Participation in University, Polytechnic or Employment at Age 18: A Longitudinal Study (original) (raw)
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Parental Income and the Choice of Participation in University, Polytechnic or
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2005
This paper examines the link between parental income during adolescent years and higher education choices of the offspring at age 18. This study is the first to use a recent longitudinal data set from New Zealand (Christchurch health and Development Surveys, CHDS), in the higher education context. The paper examines the impact of family income and other resources throughout adolescent years on later decisions to participate in higher education and the choice of type of tertiary education at age 18. A binary choice model of participation in education, and a multinomial choice model of the broader set of choices faced at age 18, of employment, university, or polytechnic participation are estimated. Among the features of the study are that it incorporates a number of variables, from birth to age 18, which allow us to control further than most earlier studies for ability heterogeneity, academic performance in secondary school, in addition to parental resources (e.g., childhood IQ, nationally comparable high school academic performance, peer effects, family size and family financial information over time). The results highlight useful features of intergenerational participation in higher education, and the effect of parental income on university education, in particular.
Academic Performance, Parental Income, and the Choice to Leave School at Age Sixteen
2005
A general international observation is that adolescents from disadvantaged families are more likely to leave school at age 16. In this paper we extend the literature on school-leaving decisions by using a new and extensive panel data set from New Zealand; and by examining the effect of family income, and personal and environmental characteristics since childhood on both academic performance and subsequent schooling choices. Results obtained from single equations and joint estimation, allowing for possible endogeneity of academic performance, reveal the importance of the role of academic performance in models of demand for education. Several factors that are at work for a long time, such as household income at different points in time, influence the schoolleaving decision through academic performance. These results point to the role that stimulating academic performance may play in breaking cycles of disadvantage.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2000
Utilising evidence from a longitudinal data set of young adults in New Zealand, this study examines the determinants of school leaving and labour supply behaviour of young adults at ages 16 and 18. The data set employed (the Christchurch Health and Development Survey) includes a number of variables, from birth to age 18, not commonly available in economic data sets. The analysis uses binary choice models to examine the effect of ability factors and household economic constraints on the choice to remain at secondary school beyond post-compulsory levels at age 16. The study further uses binary and multinomial choice models to examine the determinants of participation in tertiary education, as opposed to engaging in labour supply, or unemployment at age 18. The study finally examines the determinants of the type of tertiary institution attended.
Parental education, grade attainment and earnings expectations among university students
2010
While there is an extensive literature on intergenerational transmission of economic outcomes (education, health and income for example), many of the pathways through which these outcomes are transmitted are not as well understood. We address this deficit by analysing the relationship between socio-economic status and child outcomes in university, based on a rich and unique dataset of university students. While large socioeconomic differences in academic performance exist at the point of entry into university, these differences are substantially narrowed during the period of study. Importantly, the differences across socioeconomic backgrounds in university grade attainment for female students is explained by intermediating variables such as personality, risk attitudes and time preferences, and subject/college choices. However, for male students, we explain less than half of the socioeconomic gradient through these same pathways. Despite the weakening socio-economic effect in grade attainment, a key finding is that large socioeconomic differentials in the earnings expectations of university students persist, even when controlling for grades in addition to our rich set of controls. Our findings pose a sizable challenge for policy in this area as they suggest that equalising educational outcomes may not translate into equal labour market outcomes.
Family Background and Access to Post-Secondary Education: What Happened in the 1990's
This paper presents new evidence on the relationships between access to post-secondar y education and family background. More specificall y, we use the School Leavers Survey (SLS) and the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) to analyse participation rates first in 1991, and then almost a decade later in 2000. Overall, post-secondar y education participation rates rose over this period. However, participation is strongly related to parent's education, and whereas participation increased for individuals with more highly educated parents (especially those who went to universit y), they increased rather less, or in some cases (especially for males) declined for those from lower parental education families. The already strong "effect" of parents' education on post-secondar y access became even greater in the 1990's. Participation rates are also strongly related to family type, but whereas those from t wo parent families continue to have an advantage over single moth...
Academic performance, childhood economic resources, and the choice to leave school at age 16
Economics of Education Review, 2007
A general international observation is that adolescents from disadvantaged families are more likely to leave school at age 16. In this paper we extend the literature on school-leaving decisions by using a new and extensive panel data set from New Zealand; and by examining the effect of family income, and personal and environmental characteristics since childhood on both academic performance and subsequent schooling choices. Results obtained from single equations and joint estimation, allowing for possible endogeneity of academic performance, reveal the importance of the role of academic performance in models of demand for education. Several factors that are at work for a long time, such as household income at different points in time, influence the schoolleaving decision through academic performance. These results point to the role that stimulating academic performance may play in breaking cycles of disadvantage.
Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies
The paper investigates whether or not parents influence their children’s choice for tertiary institution to attend. Education has increasingly become more important in this present age to the extent that, without higher qualifications, employment and success become very difficult to achieve. Parents are trying to send their children to tertiary institutions so that these children will be employable. But the question is: Do parents choose the tertiary institutions for their children? The paper wants to find out whether or not parents have a say in their children’s choice for tertiary institution; and if so, look at factors that could play in the choice. A survey was conducted at the University of Venda from February 2015 to June 2015 and 500 students were conveniently sampled and interviewed. Using some statistical analyses, including Generalized Linear Modelling (GLM), the study concludes that age and the campus environment are the only factors that determine parents’ influenc...
The Changing Role of Family Income and Ability in Determining Educational Achievement
2007
This paper uses data from the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth cohorts (NLSY79 and NLSY97) to estimate changes in the effects of ability and family income on educational attainment for youth in their late teens during the early 1980s and early 2000s. Cognitive ability plays an important role in determining educational outcomes for both NLSY cohorts, while family income plays little role in determining high school completion in either cohort. Most interestingly, we document a dramatic increase in the effects of family income on college attendance (particularly among the least able) from the NLSY79 to the NLSY97. Family income has also become a much more important determinant of college 'quality' and hours/weeks worked during the academic year (the latter among the most able) in the NLSY97. Family income has little effect on college delay in either sample. To interpret our empirical findings on college attendance, we develop an educational choice model that incorporates both borrowing constraints and a 'consumption' value of schooling-two of the most commonly invoked explanations for a positive family income-schooling relationship. Without borrowing constraints, the model cannot explain the rising effects of family income on college attendance in response to the sharply rising costs and returns to college experienced from the early 1980s to early 2000s: the incentives created by a 'consumption' value of schooling imply that income should have become less important over time (or even negatively related to attendance). Instead, the data are more broadly consistent with the hypothesis that more youth are borrowing constrained today than were in the early 1980s.
Socio-economic status and subject choice at 14: do they interact to affect university access
2017
There is a large socio-economic status gap in higher education (HE) participation in England. However, most evidence suggests that this is driven by inequality that emerges before the point of application. It has been suggested that one such source of inequality is the subjects and qualifications studied by young people while still at school. The importance of this factor for young people's chances of progressing to HE in general, and to highly selective HE institutions in particular, has increasingly attracted the attention of policy-makers. This has been most notable in the UK Government's introduction of the English Baccalaureate performance measure for schools at age 16, and the introduction of performance in Russell Group "facilitating subjects" at A-Level for schools at age 18. However, this area is under-studied in the academic literature. This project aimed to address this gap using a combination of survey and administrative data on a recent cohort of Engli...