Education is increasingly seen as a substitute for social policy, but opportunities for skill development vary by social background and educational institutions are not neutral in this respect. While previous research has extensively examined how schooling affects skills distribution, the role of post-compulsory education has been long overlooked. Using data from the 2011/2012 Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competences, this article investigates how selected features of upper secondary and tertiary education are connected to the social stratification of young adults’ literacy skills in 18 OECD countries. First, I use individual-level regressions to assess the extent to which disparities in the skills of 24- to 29-year-old individuals are explained by parental education in each country. Second, I apply fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis across countries to investigate under which institutional conditions the social stratification of young adults’ literacy skills is most severe. The findings point to the existence of functionally equivalent education regimes: young adults face severe disparities not only in socially selective higher education systems but also in relatively open systems characterized by institutional differentiation; moreover, disparities arising during compulsory schooling are consequential for the skill distribution of young adults, underscoring the importance of a life-course approach to education policies.
AdamsR.M. (ed.) (2002) Trends in American and German Higher Education. Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
3.
AllmendingerJ. (1989) ‘Educational Systems and Labor Market Outcomes’, European Sociological Review5(3): 231–50.
4.
AllmendingerJ.LeibfriedS. (2003) ‘Education and the Welfare State: The Four Worlds of Competence Production’, Journal of European Social Policy13(1): 63–81.
5.
AllmendingerJ.NikolaiR. (2010) ‘Bildungs- und Sozialpolitik: Die zwei Seiten des Sozialstaats im internationalen Vergleich’, Soziale Welt61(2): 105–19.
6.
ArumR.GamoranA.ShavitY. (2007) ‘More Inclusion than Diversion: Expansion, Differentiation, and Market Structure in Higher Education’, in ShavitY.ArumR.GamoranA.MenachemG. (eds) Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study, pp. 1–38. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
7.
BakerJ. (2014a) ‘No Ivies, Oxbridge, or grandes écoles: Constructing Distinctions in University Choice’, British Journal of Sociology of Education35(6): 914–32.
8.
BakerD. (2014b) The Schooled Society: The Educational Transformation of Global Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
9.
BaumgartnerM. (2014) ‘Parsimony and Causality’, Quality and Quantity49(2): 839–56.
10.
BeckerR. (2000) ‘Klassenlage und Bildungsentscheidungen. Eine empirische Anwendung der Wert-Erwartungstheorie’, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie52(3): 450–74.
11.
BolT. (2015) ‘Has Education Become More Positional? Educational Expansion and Labour Market Outcomes, 1985–2007’, Acta Sociologica58(2): 105–20.
BoliverV. (2011) ‘Expansion, Differentiation, and the Persistence of Social Class Inequalities in British Higher Education’, Higher Education61(3): 229–42.
14.
BorgnaC. (2016) ‘Multiple Paths to Inequality: How Institutional Contexts Shape the Educational Opportunities of Second Generation Immigrants in Europe’, European Societies18(2): 180–99.
15.
BourdieuP.PasseronJ.C. (1977) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
16.
BrintS.KarabelJ. (1989) The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900–1985. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
17.
BrunelloG.ChecchiD. (2007) ‘Does School Tracking Affect Equality of Opportunity? New International Evidence’, Economic Policy22: 781–861.
18.
Brzinky-FayC. (2017) ‘The Interplay of Educational and Labour Market Institutions and Links to Relative Youth Unemployment’, Journal of European Social Policy27(4): 346–359.
19.
BuisM.L. (2013) ‘The Composition of Family Background: The Influence of the Economic and Cultural Resources of Both Parents on the Offsping’s Educational Attainment in the Netherlands between 1939 and 1991’, European Sociological Review29(3): 593–602.
20.
BukodiE.GoldthorpeJ.H. (2013) ‘Decomposing “Social Origins”: The Effects of Parents’ Class, Status, and Education on the Educational Attainment of Their children’, European Sociological Review29(5): 1024–39.
21.
BusemeyerM.R. (2014) Skills and Inequality: Partisan Politics and the Political Economy of Education Reforms in Western Welfare States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
22.
Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) (2006) ‘The Extent and Impact of Higher Education Governance Reform across Europe’, Final Report for the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission, CHEPS, University of Twente, Enschede.
23.
ClancyP.GoastellecG. (2007) ‘Exploring Access and Equity in Higher Education: Policy and Performance in a Comparative Perspective’, Higher Education Quarterly61(2): 136–54.
24.
CunhaF.HeckmanJ.J.LochnerL.MasterovD.V. (2006) ‘Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation’, in HanushekE.A.WelchF. (eds) Handbook of the Economics of Education, pp. 697–812. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co.
25.
DaviesS.ZarifaD. (2012) ‘The Stratification of Universities: Structural Inequality in Canada and the United States’, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility30(2): 143–58.
26.
De BoerH.FileJ. (2009) Higher Education Governance Reforms across Europe. Brussels: European Centre for Strategic Management of Universities.
27.
Di StasioV. (2017) ‘“Diversion or Safety Net?” Institutions and public opinion on vocational education and training, Journal of European Social Policy27(4): 360–372.
28.
DillD.D.SooM. (2005) ‘Academic Quality, League Tables, and Public Policy: A Cross-National Analysis of University Ranking Systems’, Higher Education49(4): 495–533.
29.
Esping-AndersenG. (2002) ‘A Child-Centred Social Investment Strategy’, in Esping-AndersenG. (ed.) Why We Need a New Welfare State, pp. 26–67Oxford: Oxford University Press.
30.
Estevez-AbeM.IversenT.SoskiceD. (2001) ‘Social Protection and the Formation of Skills: A Reinterpretation of the Welfare State’, in HallP.A.SoskiceD. (eds) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, pp. 145–83. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
31.
Eurobarometer (2009) Students and Higher Education Reform: Analytical Report. Brussels: European Commission.
32.
FreitagM.SchlichtR. (2009) ‘Educational Federalism in Germany: Foundations of Social Inequality in Education’, Governance22(1): 47–72.
33.
GambaroL. (2017) ‘Who is Minding the Kids? New Developments and Lost Opportunities in Reforming the British Early Education Workforce’, Journal of European Social Policy27(4): 320–331.
34.
HallP.A.SoskiceD. (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
35.
HanushekE.A. (1974) ‘Efficient Estimators for Regressing Regression Coefficients’, The American Statistician28(2): 66–7.
36.
HanushekE.A.WoessmannL. (2011) ‘The Economics of International Differences in Educational Achievement’, in MachinS.WoessmannL. (eds) Handbook of the Economics of Education, pp. 89–200. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co.
37.
HanushekE.A.SchwerdtG.WiederholdS.WößmannL. (2015) ‘Returns to Skills around the World: Evidence from PIAAC (Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competences)’, European Economic Review73: 103–30.
38.
HillmertS.JacobM. (2003) ‘Social Inequality in Higher Education: Is Vocational Training a Pathway Leading to or Away from University?’, European Sociological Review19(3): 319–34.
39.
HuismanJ.Van VughtF. (2009) ‘Diversity in European Higher Education: Historical Trends and Current Policies’, in Van VughtF. (ed.) Mapping the Higher Education Landscape: Towards a European Classification of Higher Education, pp. 17–37. Dordrecht: Springer.
40.
HuismanJ.MeekL.WoodF. (2007) ‘Institutional Diversity in Higher Education: A Cross-National and Longitudinal Analysis’, Higher Education Quarterly61(4): 563–77.
41.
IversenT.StephensJ.D. (2008) ‘Partisan Politics, the Welfare State, and Three Worlds of Human Capital Formation’, Comparative Political Studies41(4–5): 600–37.
42.
JacksonM.EriksonR.GoldthorpeJ.H.MeirY. (2007) ‘Primary and Secondary Effects in Class Differentials in Educational Attainment: The Transition to A-Level Courses in England and Wales’, Acta Sociologica50(3): 211–29.
43.
JonesS.GabrielsenE. (2013) Comparisons of the Frameworks for Reading (PISA) and Literacy (PIAAC). Paris: OECD Publishing.
44.
KariyaT. (2011) ‘Japanese Solutions to the Equity and Efficiency Dilemma? Secondary Schools, Inequity and the Arrival of “Universal” Higher Education’, Oxford Review of Education37(2): 241–66.
LewisJ.B.LinzerD.A. (2005) ‘Estimating Regression Models in Which the Dependent Variable Is Based on Estimates’, Political Analysis13(4): 345–64.
47.
LörzM.SchindlerS. (2011) ‘Bildungsexpansion und soziale Ungleichheit: Zunahme, Abnahme oder Persistenz ungleicher Chancenverhältnisse – eine Frage der Perspektive?’, Zeitschrift für Soziologie40(6): 458–77.
48.
LucasS.R. (2001) ‘Effectively Maintained Inequality: Education Transitions, Track Mobility, and Social Background Effects’, American Journal of Sociology106(6): 1642–90.
49.
MarksG.N. (2005) ‘Cross-National Differences and Accounting for Social Class Inequalities in Education’, International Sociology20(4): 483–505.
50.
MayerK.U.SolgaH. (2008) Skill Formation Interdisciplinary and Cross-National Perspectives. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
51.
MorelN.PalierB.PalmeJ. (2012) Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? Ideas, Policies, and Challenges. Chicago, IL: Policy Press.
52.
MüllerW.PollakR. (2007) ‘Weshalb gibt es so wenige Arbeiterkinder in Deutschlands Universitäten?’, in BeckerR.LauterbachW. (eds) Bildung als Privileg, pp. 303–42. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
53.
NeugebauerM. (2015) ‘The Introduction of Bachelor Degrees and the under-Representation of Students from Low Social Origin in Higher Education in Germany: A Pseudo-Panel Approach’, European Sociological Review31(5): 591–602.
54.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2013a) Technical Report of the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). Paris: OECD Publishing.
55.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2013b) The Survey of Adult Skills: Reader’s Companion. Paris: OECD Publishing.
ProtschP.SolgaH. (2017) ‘Going across Europe for an Apprenticeship? A Factorial Survey Experiment on Employers’ Hiring Preferences in Germany’, Journal of European Social Policy27(4): 387–399.
58.
RaginC.C. (1987) The Comparative Method: Moving beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
59.
RaginC.C. (2000) Fuzzy-Set Social Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
60.
RaginC.C. (2008) Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy Sets and beyond. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
61.
SantiagoP.TremblayK.BasriE.ArnalE. (2008) Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society. Volume 2. Special Features: Equity, Innovation, Labour market, Internationalisation. Paris: OECD Publishing.
62.
Schimpl-NeimannsB. (2000) ‘Soziale Herkunft und Bildungsbeteiligung. Empirische Analysen zu herkunftsspezifischen Bildungsungleichheiten zwischen 1950 und 1989ic, Vocational or General? An Analysis of Public O’, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie52(4): 636–69.
63.
SchneiderC.Q.MakszinK. (2014) ‘Forms of Welfare Capitalism and Education-Based Participatory Inequality’, Socio-Economic Review12(2): 437–62.
64.
SchneiderC.Q.WagemannC. (2012) Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
65.
SchützG.UrsprungH.W.WoessmannL. (2008) ‘Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity’, Kyklos61(2): 279–308.
66.
ShavitY.ArumR.GamoranA.MenachemG. (2007) Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
67.
ShavitY.MüllerW. (2000) ‘Vocational Secondary Education: Where Diversion and Where Safety Net?’, European Societies2(1): 29–50.
68.
SolgaH. (2014) ‘Education, Economic Inequality and the Promises of the Social Investment State’, Socio-Economic Review12(2): 269–97.
69.
SørensenA.B. (1970) ‘Organizational Differentiation of Students and Educational Opportunity’, Sociology of Education43(4): 355–76.
70.
TeichlerU. (2008) ‘Diversification? Trends and Explanations of the Shape and Size of Higher Education’, Higher Education56(3): 349–79.
71.
TriventiM. (2013) ‘Stratification in Higher Education and Its Relationship with Social Inequality: A Comparative Study of 11 European Countries’, European Sociological Review29(3): 489–502.
72.
Van de WerfhorstH.G.MijsJ.J.B. (2010) ‘Achievement Inequality and the Institutional Structure of Educational Systems: A Comparative Perspective’, Annual Review of Sociology36(1): 407–28.
73.
Van VughtF. (2009) ‘Diversity and Differentiation in Higher Education Systems’, in Van VughtF. (ed.) Mapping the Higher Education Landscape: Towards a European Classification of Higher Education, pp. 1–15. Dordrecht: Springer.
74.
WillemseN.De BeerP. (2012) ‘Three Worlds of Educational Welfare States? A Comparative Study of Higher Education Systems across Welfare States’, Journal of European Social Policy22(2): 105–17.
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
