Working Papers

We discuss how a schooling system's structure may imply that private school enrolment leads to worse subsequent performance in further education or in the labour market, and we seek evidence of such phenomena in Italian data. If students differ not only in terms of their families' ability to pay but also in terms of their own ability to take advantage of educational opportunities ("talent" for short), theory predicts that private schools attract a worse pool of students when publicly funded schools are better suited to foster progress by more talented students. We analyze empirically three surveys of Italian secondary school graduates, interviewed 3 years after graduation. In these data, the impact of observable talent proxies on educational and labour market outcomes is indeed more positive for students who (endogenously) choose to attend public schools than for those who choose to pay for private education.

Butler, J. I. and K. L. Robson (2007). Reassessing the Role of Education in Social Reproduction: The Impact of School Type on the Cultural and Social Capital of High School Students in the U.S. Working Paper.

The paper applies the PISA 2000 survey data in order to investigate the influence of social capital on educational outcomes. The empirical analysis follows Coleman's theory on the role of social capital in determining pupils' assessment in the school. The paper has three aims: it develops a model where social capital measures serve as predictor variables in order to explain students' reading abilities; it investigates the cross-national variation in the impact of social capital on educational achievement; it discusses the measurement problems for social capital in the PISA 2000 data. The analysis confirms most of the hypotheses derived from the social capital theory and the previous studies. It also reveals more insight into the causal relations between some elements of social capital like family educational support or teacher support and students' performance. Comparative analysis displays national differences in particular for the post-socialist and non-European countries. The effect of social capital on learning outcomes may be even underestimated because relevant aspects and components of social capital were not measured in the PISA survey.

The paper analyzes school transition from secondary level to tertiary education. Rational action theory is regarded the main driving force in this process. In addition, two other mechanisms, the use of cultural and social capital, are also taken into account. Since students who intend to study at tertiary level constitute a selected group - they have made a choice before when entering secondary education - secondary school tracking will also be used to predict entry into tertiary education. Men and women are investigated separately in order to detect gender differences. Two data sets are analyzed in the paper. The first one comes from an international project of 1993 and puts Hungary into comparative perspective to Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The second one is a single-year cohort database from 1998 and contains information on 18 years old students, interviewed before their final exam in secondary school and the entrance exam to tertiary education. Transition process for them is divided into two parts: the administrative action of application (self-selection) and success or failure of the entrance exam (selection). Strong class effects provide evidence on the relevance of rational action theory and prove that inequality in the access to educational possibilities existed under socialism and is present after socialism as well. These effects become smaller but persist, when they are controlled for other measures on social background (father's education, cultural capital, family structure, information on siblings). In comparative perspective, Hungary does not deviate much from the other three countries but class effects seem to be somewhat stronger. The analysis of the single-year post-socialist cohort of Hungarian students reveals that the decision about school continuation is the real (rational) choice determined by social background. Success on entrance examination is less affected by the same predictor variables.

The paper defines educational markets based on the major divisions existing in the school system like 1) public vs. private; 2) tracking either by academic vs. vocational curriculum or by ability; and 3) schools' practice regarding admittance of students. It is assumed that sector of schools, tracking practice as well as admittance rules create a 'market', put the schools into various positions in the educational 'field' and parents consider these options when deciding about school choice. In addition to this 'input- effect' leading most probably to differences in school composition regarding social background of the pupils, there is also an 'output-effect', namely that school's position in the market has an impact on students' school performance. The paper investigates the statistical relationship between parental background and type of school, the offspring attend. It is assumed that parents with higher status prefer to choose schools with stronger academic curriculum, using academic criteria to select students, belonging to private sector and applying some ability grouping. Moreover, the paper estimates the impact of the school's market position on the performance of their students. It is expected that pupils will perform better in schools with stronger academic curriculum, in the private sector, applying some practice for selection based on previous qualification and grouping the students by ability. The paper uses the data form the PISA 2006 survey. The analysis on the odds of school choice confirms the assumptions with the exception of ability tracking. For the impact of the various market-characteristics on performance most of the assumptions are verified but ability grouping does not improve achievement. Applying interaction terms, shows that students from high status families benefit more from the education market with the exception of the religious schools.

This paper examines the predictors of being economically inactive in youth and young adulthood, as well as later-life outcomes that are associated with this form of disengagement from society. Specifically, the phenomenon of being 'NEET' - not in employment, education, or training - is focused upon. Using longitudinal panel data from seven western European countries, the individual and household socioeconomic level predictors of NEET status are examined as are recurrent NEET status, and human and social capital outcomes in successive years after NEET status is observed. Country differences are hypothesized through the use of the youth transitions regime approach. Finding reveal no systematic differences by regime type in either the predictors or outcomes of NEET status, although surprising findings in the UK set it apart from the other countries. Having a child early in life predicted NEET status least in the subprotective countries and most in the employment-centered countries. Some evidence was found that outcomes for NEETs were the most severe in the sub-protective countries, particularly with regard to social capital outcomes, which may be due to the importance of the informal economy in such countries. Other interpretations of the findings are suggested by correlating the differences in recurrent NEET rates across country with national statistics on youth unemployment and human development measures of education.

Previous research has found that the relationship between attending youth clubs and later-life outcomes is generally negative. In this paper, we attempt to unpack this relationship by examining youth club attendance in combination with other activities and how this impacts on later-life educational outcomes. We also introduce a measure of youth club structure in order to examine claims by other researchers it is the unstructured form of youth clubs that are driving the associations between their attendance in adolescence and later-life negative outcomes. We analyse data from a cohort of British births and find that youth clubs attendance in combination with other activities reduces their negative impact on educational outcomes, as does the attendance of structured clubs over unstructured clubs. Suggestions are made for interpretation of findings within a youth policy framework.