The theory of Relative Risk Aversion (RRA) claims that educational decision-making is ultimately motivated by the individual’s desire to avoid downward social class mobility, and that this desire is stronger than the desire to pursue upward mobility. This paper implements a dynamic programming...

The sociological research literature on intergenerational educational attainment has highlighted three types of theoretical frameworks in explaining to what extent social origins influences people’s educational choices and possibilities. The three explanatory frameworks are 1) the...

Most studies which use Mare’s (1980, 1981) seminal model of educational transitions find that the effect of family background variables decreases across educational transitions. Cameron and Heckman (1998, 2001) have argued that this “waning coefficients” phenomenon might be driven by...

This paper proposes a new approach to dealing with unobserved heterogeneity in applied research using the binary logit model with cross-sectional data and short panels. Unobserved heterogeneity is particularly important in non-linear regression models such as the binary logit model because,...

The aim of this paper is investigate the extent to which monetary and non-monetary social background factors explain intergenerational educational attainment in Denmark. The main hypothesis tested is that non-monetary social background factors (cultural, social, and cognitive parental resources)...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of retirement on psychological well-being. Findings from previous research in this field are inconsistent, as both positive, negative, and sometimes no effect of retirement on well-being is reported. In the paper we suggest that the...

This paper tests the self-interest hypothesis arguing that changes in macroeconomic and social conditions affect popular demand for redistribution. I analyze data from four waves of the European Social Survey and use a synthetic cohort design to generate pseudo panel data for socio-demographic...

This paper provides new estimates of the causal effect of cultural capital on academic achievement. I use a difference-in-difference design which addresses the problem of omitted variable bias which has led to too optimistic estimates of the effect of cultural capital on educational success in...