Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/18606
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
RWI Discussion Papers No. 55
Publisher: 
Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI), Essen
Abstract: 
The German schooling system selects children into different secondary school tracks already at a very early stage in life. School track choice heavily influences choices and opportunities later in life. It has often been observed that secondary schooling achievements display a strong correlation with parental income.We use sibling fixed effects models and information on a natural experiment in order to analyze whether this correlation is due to a causal effect of income or due to unobservable factors that themselves might be correlated across generations. Our main findings suggest that income has no positive causal effect on school choice and that differences between high- and low-income households are driven by unobserved heterogeneity, e.g. differences in motivation.
Subjects: 
Child poverty
educational attainment
secondary schools
sibling differences
natural experiment
JEL: 
I21
D31
J13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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