The Consequences of the Educational Gradient in First Births for the Intergenerational Transmission of Education

Alessandra Trimarchi , University of Vienna

Individuals can transmit their own education to the next generation only if they become parents. Whether and when an individual becomes a parent is indirectly dependent on the level of education. Previous research found that for highly educated women there is no effect of (own)education on the probability to have a highly educated child, because of the negative effects of tertiary education on women’s likelihood to marry and have children. In this paper, I analyse the French context, which is generally characterized by low levels of childlessness, and focus on the differential timing of parenthood by level of education. Additionally, the relative value of education should be examined when estimating whether children born to older mothers have benefited from educational expansion. To this aim, I use the survey Formation et Qualification Professionnelle (FQP) 2014-2015, which has information about the educational trajectories of respondents and their parents’, and select first-born children who were born between 1950-1992. In line with previous studies, also in France older parents are still more likely to have a highly educated child relative to younger parents. Having children later in the life course is an advantage for the educational trajectories of the children, who might enjoy a parental background with higher socio-economic resources. This translates in an advantage for the educational outcomes of the children born to older parents. The advantage, however, could disappear when we consider education in relative terms. This is because of educational expansion and changes in structural conditions that may not be favourable.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe