Do family resources matter? Educational attainment during transition in Poland*

Abstract

We analyse the relationship between family background and children's educational attainment in the 1990s in Poland. If parental poverty affects children's educational prospects, the increase in social inequalities observed in the Polish transition process will be transmitted between generations. We apply an ordered probit model of educational attainment on longitudinal data from the Polish Labour Force Survey. Surprisingly, parents' income and their labour market status have only a weak impact on children's education. Parents' schooling, however, is strongly related to children's, and so are household structure, city size, and region of residence. We conclude that, if transmission of inequality takes place between generations, this seems to be primarily caused by the inheritance of human capital rather than by pure wealth effects.JEL classifications: I21, P36.

Inequality of Educational Opportunity in East and West Germany: Convergence or Continued Differences

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Access to Secondary Education in Albania: Incentives, Obstacles, and Policy Spillovers

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“Dobra polska mowa”: monoglot ideology, multilingual reality and Polish organisations in the UK

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