Abstract
This work examines the validity of the two main assumptions of relative risk-aversion models of educational inequality. We compare the Breen-Goldthorpe (BG) and the Breen-Yaish (BY) models in terms of their assumptions about status maintenance motives and beliefs about the occupational risks associated with educational decisions. Concerning the first assumption, our contribution is threefold. First, we criticise the assumption of the BG model that families aim only at avoiding downward mobility and are insensitive to the prospects of upward mobility. We argue that the loss-aversion assumption proposed by BY is a more realistic formulation of status-maintenance motives. Second, we propose and implement a novel empirical approach to assess the validity of the loss-aversion assumption. Third, we present empirical results based on a sample of families of lower secondary school leavers indicating that families are sensitive to the prospects of both upward and downward mobility, and that the loss-aversion hypothesis of BY is empirically supported. As regards the risky choice assumption, we argue that families may not believe that more ambitious educational options entail occupational risks relative to less ambitious ones. We present empirical evidence indicating that, in France, the academic path is not perceived as a risky option. We conclude that, if the restrictive assumptions of the BG model are removed, relative-risk aversion needs not drive educational inequalities.
Highlights
Social stratification research has extensively documented that upper-class children are more likely to take academic tracks in secondary education and to enrol in tertiary education than working-class children, even controlling for differences in prior academic performance (Jackson, 2011)
BG argue that the more ambitious educational options are riskier, that is, they involve a greater risk of social demotion if they are not completed, and that upper-class families are more inclined than working-class families to bear these risks in order to minimise the probability that their children experience downward mobility
In the concluding remarks, we suggest that Relative Risk-Aversion (RRA) models provide a plausible description of educational decision-making if reformulated as loss-aversion models
Summary
Social stratification research has extensively documented that upper-class children are more likely to take academic tracks in secondary education and to enrol in tertiary education than working-class children, even controlling for differences in prior academic performance (Jackson, 2011). In the concluding remarks (section 8), we suggest that RRA models provide a plausible description of educational decision-making if reformulated as loss-aversion models In this reformulation, they do not necessarily imply the existence of educational inequalities and, due to their assumptions about perceived risks, they may be less generally applicable than is usually assumed. Under certain formalised assumptions concerning the utility function underlying educational decisions and the pattern of the above-mentioned beliefs, the BG model provides a mathematical proof that the service class takes the option ‘stay’ more often than the working class This conclusion holds for any empirical value of the π, α, β and γ parameters: provided that the model’s assumptions are met, service class families will always display higher continuation propensities. As noted by Goldthorpe himself (2006:30-33), the extensive educational and occupational upward mobility observed for past cohorts across western countries suggests that the lower social classes do aspire to improve their social position
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