Professional Matura as Inequality Reducing Measure?

Abstract

Education is a major source of inequality of opportunity, since it has long-lasting effects in various areas such as the labor market. By consequence, public policies aiming at reducing inequality of opportunity in education are likely to have broader effects on the dynamics of inequality in general. In Switzerland, a new upper secondary degree was introduced to facilitate the upward mobility of students in the vocational track to tertiary education. We analyze the role of this degree as an inequality of opportunity reducing tool. A two-part model is used to identify inequality reducing effects. Our results are very heterogeneous showing some beneficial effects in terms of inequality reduction for students in intermediate schools, but rather inequality increasing effects for students in apprenticeships.

Keywords: education, inequality of opportunity, sample selection bias

JEL Classification: D63, I24, J24