Intergeneration Educational Mobility in Russia and the USSR

Type Conference Paper - The Asian Conference on Education 2012 Conference Proceedings
Title Intergeneration Educational Mobility in Russia and the USSR
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2012
URL http://iafor.info/archives/offprints/ace2012-offprints/ACE2012_0680.pdf
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to estimate the factors of intergeneration educational mobility in Russia and Soviet Union, that is to test the equality in accessing the continuation of education at the next level for children from different social groups (families with various levels of the family capital), estimated for different cohorts. The data source is Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) in 2006-11. There are panel data collected in 1994-2011. The sample is representative for Russia population as a whole. In 2006 there were some questions about respondent parents, that allow us to test if there is the dependence between educational level of respondent and some parameters of his/her parents, including their educational level, Communist Party membership and several other. We estimated the model of probability to get the education of the given level depending on gender, age, nationality, characteristics of parents and birthplace for Russian people born in 1946-1990. Data about respondents' education are collected in 2006-11, about their parents - in 2006. The method of this model estimation is multinomial regression. The model was estimated for the pooled sample, as well as for three cohorts separately: born in 1946-60, 1961-75, 1976-90. It was found out that the family capital (first of all, the educational level of parents and urbanization level) represent an essential obstacle for educational opportunities of Russian high schools graduates. Regression estimation for the pooled sample demonstrates the significant level of dependence of respondents' education on that of their parents. The main conclusion is that the inequity in access to professional education was strong for all three cohorts. The following factors have positive impact on the child’s chances of having educational level lower than university diploma: parents’ human capital is low; respondent was born in a village; father wasn’t a member of the Communist Party of the USSR; respondent’s gender is male (excluding secondary professional education). The inequity in accessing professional education was strong for cohorts born in 1946-60 as well as in 1976-90. Parents’ human capital always had the greatest effect on educational chances compared to all other factors. The negative impact of parents' low human capital was stronger for younger cohort (born in 1976-90) than for the older one (born in 1946-60). That is why although the absolute accessibility of professional education in modern Russia increased, the relative accessibility of professional education (i.e. their dependence on parents' education) decreased. The intergenerational educational mobility (percentage of children who are more educated than their parents) decreased.

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