Selective schooling and social mobility in England

Franz Buscha, Emma Gorman and Patrick Sturgis

Labour Economics, 2023, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: We assess whether changing from an academically selective to a comprehensive schooling system promotes social mobility, using England as a case study. Over a period of two decades, the share of pupils in academically selective schools in England declined sharply and differentially by area. Using a sample of census records matched to data on selective schooling, we exploit temporal and geographic variation in the proportion of pupils attending selective schools to estimate the effects of schooling system on intergenerational social mobility. Our results provide no support for the contention that the move from selective to comprehensive schooling had a notable effect on social mobility in England. The findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity and robustness checks.

Keywords: Social mobility; Selective schooling; Grammar schools; Intergenerational mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J18 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:81:y:2023:i:c:s0927537123000118

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102336

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