The economics of educational opportunity

Abstract

The extent to which economic factors can explain private decisions about staying on at school beyond minimum school leaving age and about going on to higher education is considered. The pattern of continuing education by age and by class is described: most terminate their full-time education at the earliest opportunity but a higher proportion of those with middle-class parents stay on. Differences in private rates of return to the student to staying on at school and to university offer an explanation for the lower proportion dropping out of education at the end of school than at minimum school leaving age. Private rates of return do not explain the variation in the pattern of continuing education between social classes. Costs to parents of continuing their child's education are considered for model families at different income levels. These costs, relative to income level, offer a possible explanation for differences in continuing education between socio-economic groups, and may be an important barrier to equal educational opportunity.