How Equal Are Educational Opportunities? Family Background and Student Achievement in Europe and the United States

Ludger Woessmann

No 1162, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of family-background characteristics on student performance in the US and 17 Western European school systems. Family background has strong effects both in Europe and the United States, remarkably similar in size. France and Flemish Belgium achieve the most equitable performance for students from different family backgrounds, and Britain and Germany the least. Equality of opportunities is unrelated to countries’ mean performance. Quantile regressions show little variation in family-background effects across the ability distribution in most countries.

Keywords: education; equality of opportunity; student performance; family background; TIMSS; equity-efficiency tradeoff; intergenerational mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (74)

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Working Paper: How Equal Are Educational Opportunities? Family Background and Student Achievement in Europe and the United States (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1162

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