Does the Expansion of Higher Education Increase the Equality of Educational Opportunities? Evidence from Italy

Bratti, Massimiliano; Checchi, Daniele; de Blasio, Guido

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1135937

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Does the Expansion of Higher Education Increase the Equality of Educational Opportunities? Evidence from Italy

IZA Working Paper No. 3361

38 Pages Posted: 23 May 2008

See all articles by Massimiliano Bratti

Massimiliano Bratti

Università degli Studi di Milano - DEAS; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Daniele Checchi

Università degli Studi di Milano - Dipartimento di Economia Politica e Aziendale (DEPA); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; IRVAPP

Guido de Blasio

Bank of Italy

There are 2 versions of this paper

Abstract

This paper studies the role of the expansion of higher education (HE) in increasing the equality of tertiary education opportunities. It examines Italy's experience during the 1990s, when policy changes prompted HE institutions to offer a wider range of degrees and to open new sites in neighbouring provinces. Our analysis focuses on non-mature full-time students and the results suggest that the expansion might have had only limited effects in terms of reducing existing individual inequality in HE achievement as the greater availability of courses had a significantly positive impact only on the probability of university enrolment but not on that of obtaining a university degree.

Keywords: family background, higher education, Italy

JEL Classification: I2

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Bratti, Massimiliano and Checchi, Daniele and de Blasio, Guido, Does the Expansion of Higher Education Increase the Equality of Educational Opportunities? Evidence from Italy. IZA Working Paper No. 3361, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1135937 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1135937