Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: Nonstandard Educational Careers and Inequality
Author-Name: Moritz Mendel
Author-Email: moritz.mendel@uni-bonn.de

Classification-JEL: I2
Keywords: Inequality, Education, Vocational Training

Abstract: Individuals from low-income backgrounds perform worse than their higher income
peers in school. If individuals from low-income backgrounds enter university,
they are more likely to do so after dropping out of high school or finishing
vocational training. I refer to trajectories that involve vocational training or
high school dropout before entering university as alternative paths to university.
This paper asks whether alternative paths to university promote social mobility.
To reach this goal, I specify a dynamic model of education that follows individuals
from low-income backgrounds in the Netherlands during adolescence and early
adulthood. The model shows that despite initial achievement gaps, many individuals
from low-income backgrounds have high returns from finishing a bachelor’s
degree later. They face substantial dropout risk, however, when entering higher
education. Alternative paths to university substantially increase university graduation
rates and wages among individuals from low-income backgrounds. The
main explanation for this result is that many individuals from low-income backgrounds
face substantial uncertainty when deciding about their future education
at sixteen. Imposing flexibility between different educational careers consequently
improves outcomes significantly.

Note: 
Length: 76
Creation-Date: 2024-09
Revision-Date: 
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp592
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2024_592