Status reproduction in an egalitarian society: the effects of family wealth on educational attainment, occupational status and wealth in Australia

摘要

Education is widely touted as an important mechanism for overcoming the disadvantages associated with growing up in a low socio-economic family. There is a plethora of research showing that young people with university-educated parents are more likely to graduate from university than their peers who have parents with lower levels of education. There is also evidence of an association between attending a fee-paying school and graduation from university. Wealthy families are better able to pay fees for elite private schools and tend to live in areas with better-resourced government schools. In this paper, I examine the effects of parental wealth on educational attainment, occupational status and wealth in young adulthood using data from the Housing, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey collected in 2002 and 2014. The results show that high levels of family wealth are associated with an increased likelihood of completing a university degree; and with having high levels of occupational status and wealth.