Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/222144 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 247
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition, München und Berlin
Abstract: 
Inequality of opportunity strikes when two children with the same academic performance are sent to diff erent quality schools because their parents di ffer in socio-economic status. Based on a novel dataset for Germany, we demonstrate that children are signi ficantly less likely to enter the academic track if they come from low socio-economic status (SES) families, even after conditioning on prior measures of school performance. We then provide causal evidence that a low-intensity mentoring program can improve long-run education outcomes of low SES children and reduce inequality of opportunity. Low SES children, who were randomly assigned to a mentor for one year are 20 percent more likely to enter a high track program. The mentoring relationship aff ects both parents and children and has positive long-term implications for children's educational trajectories.
Subjects: 
mentoring
childhood intervention programs
education
human capital investments
inequality of opportunity
socio-economic status
JEL: 
C90
I24
J24
J62
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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