This work presents a direct empirical test of the Breen-Goldthorpe (BG) rational choice model applied to social inequalities in access to university in Italy. In particular, we assess to what extent secondary effects of social background on university enrolment are accounted for by families' economic resources and relative risk aversion, among a recent cohort of high school graduates. We also assess the role played by students' numeric expectations and general perceptions of university costs, the returns to university degrees and their chances of successfully completing university. Compared to existing research, our contribution is based on a large scale longitudinal study covering different areas of a new national case, includes a larger set of indicators measuring rational choice mechanisms, and proposes a novel measurement strategy for the indicator of relative risk aversion. The core finding is that rational choice mechanisms account for around one fifth of secondary effects of social origin in university enrolment. Family's economic resources and RRA, the two explanatory mechanisms of the BG model, have a limited explanatory power, whereas the perception of the indirect costs associated to attending university is more important. Overall, high school track plays the most prominent role, thereby indicating that -despite the formal 'openness' of the system -a large part of inequalities in access to university in Italy are already produced when tracking first occurs in upper secondary education.
In this article, we propose and test a novel explanation for gender segregation in Higher Education that focuses on the misperceptions of economic returns to fields of study. We frame this explanation within the literature emphasizing the role of gender-stereotypical preferences and occupational plans, and we argue that counselling activities in school can play a crucial role in either reinforcing or countering the weight of these expressive mechanisms relative to more instrumental considerations involving occupational prospects of different fields. In particular, we suggest that the availability of reliable, readyto-use information on these prospects enhances the probability that students, particularly females, opt for more rewarding fields. To test this argument, we present the results of a field experiment conducted in Italy that confronted high school seniors with detailed information concerning returns to tertiary education and field of study differentials, and we assess how girls and boys reacted to this counselling intervention.
After the Euro-crisis, out-migration from Southern Europe revived, mostly fed by the highly skilled young. Nevertheless, little is known about these new migrants, particularly regarding the determinants and payoffs of their moves. This paper delves into the Italian case, drawing on a large representative sample of the 2011 graduation cohort. Multivariate analyses show that young people from upper class families, foreign citizens, graduates in scientific and internationally-oriented fields and best-performing students are more likely to migrate. Moreover, compared to the 'stayers', graduate migrants enjoy more favorable outcomes in terms of wages, unemployment risks, access to skilled employment, and career satisfaction.
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