Educational Systems, Intergenerational Mobility and Social Segmentation

Abstract

We show that the characteristics of the educational system itself can generate social segmentation. A stylised educational framework is constructed in which everyone receives a compulsory basic education and can subsequently choose between direct working, vocational studies and the university, with a barrier to the entry into the latter. Divergences in total educational expenditure and in its distribution between the three types of study, combined with the initial distribution of human capital across individuals, can generate very different social segmentation, with under education traps at the steady state. We finally implement a series of simulations so as to analyse different educational systems and their impacts on social segmentation.

Keywords: Educational systems, Intergenerational mobility, Social segmentation, Under-education trap

JEL Classification: E24, H52, I21