Family background, educational achievement and labour market outcomes: A cross-national comparison

一个备受关注的事实是，与处于有利地位的同龄人相比，来自弱势家庭的孩子在学校、上大学和获得高薪专业工作的可能性较小。随着历届政府试图解决社会流动性低的根本原因，这个问题已经成为一个重大的公共政策问题。这导致了关于如何在英格兰(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/social-mobility.htm)增加社会流动性的跨党派讨论，目前的联合政府将此作为首要的社会政策目标(http://www.dpm.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/social-mobility-strategy-launched).政策制定者对英国可以从其他国家学习如何实现这一目标表现出特别的兴趣。例如，澳大利亚副总理(尼克·克莱格)、教育国务秘书(迈克尔·戈夫)和反对党领袖(埃德·米利班德)最近都谈到，澳大利亚和加拿大的弱势年轻人的生活前景比英国和美国的年轻人好得多。(http://www.suttontrust.com/research/social-mobility-summit-research-findings/).为了让英国成为一个更公平、更有凝聚力的社会，我们必须了解为什么会出现这种情况；其他国家是否正在做一些我们没有做过的事情来帮助贫困儿童？这个项目将考察家庭背景如何影响一系列发达国家未来的生活结果。我将首先调查是否像主要政治家(迈克尔·戈夫)所说的那样，在英国，与任何可比的国家相比，那些出生贫穷的人更有可能继续贫穷，而那些继承特权的人更有可能传递特权。为了做到这一点，我将使用来自20多个工业化国家的10万多人的新数据，研究一个人的家庭背景、他们发展的技能和他们以后的收入之间的联系强度。接下来将调查青少年在青少年时期所走的不同道路，以及四个英语国家(英国、加拿大、澳大利亚和美国)的不同之处。这将包括何时离开学校、是否上大学以及年轻人长期失业的可能性等重要决定。例如，尽管我们知道，在英国，来自贫困家庭的孩子很难接受高等教育(尤其是牛津和剑桥这样的精英院校)，但在加拿大和澳大利亚等其他被认为更具社会流动性的国家，情况是否也是如此？如果不是，那么这些国家对我们有什么不同之处？是因为他们提供了更多的经济援助，降低了学费，还是仅仅是因为在其他国家，孩子们在学校的成绩更加平等？为了回答这些问题，我将使用不同的数据集调查来自这四个国家的40,000多名儿童从学校到工作的转变。该项目将使用这些大规模数据并应用定量分析方法，可能的发现将为许多群体带来重大好处。年轻人将深入了解从事不同教育和职业道路的后果，鼓励他们仔细考虑适合自己的正确选择。学者和教育家将更好地了解不同国家的社会经济不平等是如何出现的，以及富裕家庭和贫穷家庭的儿童机会差异如此之大的原因。最后，政策制定者将受益于该项目就如何使有利群体和弱势群体的机会均等(一个重要的政策目标)提出的建议。

It is a much commented upon fact that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to do well at school, go to university and obtain a well-paid, professional job than their more advantaged peers. This problem has become a major public policy issue, with successive governments attempting to tackle the root causes of this low social mobility. This has led to cross-party discussions of how social mobility can be increased in England (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/social-mobility.htm) with the current coalition government setting this as a top social policy goal (http://www.dpm.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/social-mobility-strategy-launched). Policymakers have shown particular interest in the lessons that England can learn from other countries about how this might be achieved. For instance, the Deputy Prime Minister (Nick Clegg), Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove) and Leader of the Opposition (Ed Miliband) all recently spoke about how disadvantaged young people in Australia and Canada have much better prospects in life than those in England and the United States (http://www.suttontrust.com/research/social-mobility-summit-research-findings/). For England to become a fairer and more cohesive society, it is vital that we understand why this is the case; are there certain things other countries are doing to help poor children that we are not?This project shall examine how family background shapes later lifetime outcomes across a range of developed countries. I will first of all investigate whether 'those who are born poor are more likely to stay poor and those who inherit privilege are more likely to pass on privilege in England than in any comparable country' as has been claimed by leading politicians (Michael Gove). To do so, I will examine the strength of association between a person's family background, the skills they develop and the pay they receive in later life, using new data on over 100,000 individuals from more than 20 industrialized nations. This will be followed by an investigation of the different pathways young people take during the teenage years, and how this varies across four English speaking countries (England, Canada, Australia and the United States). This will include the important decisions of when to leave school, whether to go to university, and the chances of suffering an extended spell of youth unemployment. For instance, although we know that children from disadvantaged homes have difficulty in accessing higher education in England (particularly 'elite' institutions like Oxford and Cambridge), does the same hold true in other supposedly more socially mobile countries like Canada and Australia? If not, then what do these countries do differently to us? Is it that they provide more financial assistance, have lower tuition fees or is it simply that in other countries children's achievement in school are more equal? To answer these questions I shall investigate the school-to-work transitions made by over 40,000 children from across these four countries, using a different data set from each. The project will use this large-scale data and apply quantitative analysis methods, with the likely findings offering significant benefits to a number of groups. Young people will gain an insight into the consequences of undertaking different educational and occupational pathways, encouraging them to carefully consider the right option for them. Academics and educationalists will have a better understanding of how socio-economic inequalities emerge across different countries and the reasons why opportunities differ so markedly between children from rich and poor homes. Finally, policymakers will benefit from the recommendations the project shall make about how to equalize opportunities amongst advantaged and disadvantaged groups (an important policy goal).