Educational policy and intergenerational income mobility: Evidence from the Finnish comprehensive school reform

Arbeitspapier

This paper estimates the effect of a major education reform on the intergenerational income mobility in Finland. The Finnish comprehensive school reform of 1972-1977 replaced the old two-track school system with a uniform nine-year comprehensive school and significantly reduced the degree of heterogeneity in the Finnish primary and secondary education. We estimate the effect of this reform on the intergenerational income elasticity using a representative sample of males born during 1960-1966. The identification strategy relies on a difference-in-differences approach and exploits the fact that the reform was implemented gradually across country during a six-year period. The results indicate that the reform reduced the intergenerational income elasticity by about seven percentage points.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 2006:13

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Education and Research Institutions: General ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
• Subject: Intergenerational mobility ; education ; comprehensive school reform ; Bildungsreform ; Bildungspolitik ; Erwerbsverlauf ; Soziale Mobilität ; Overlapping Generations ; Finnland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Pekkarinen, Tuomas ; Pekkala, Sari ; Uusitalo, Roope
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation (IFAU)
• (where): Uppsala
• (when): 2006

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/78681
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET