The Microeconometrics Seminar: Every Tuesday
Time: 03:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Date: 15th of september 2020
by visio
Pia PINGER (Université de Cologne)  – “Mentoring and Schooling Decisions: Causal Evidence”

Abstract: Inequality of opportunity strikes when two children with the same academic performance are sent to different quality schools because their parents differ in socio-economic status. Based on a novel dataset for Germany, we demonstrate that children are significantly less likely to enter the academic track if they come from low socio-economic status (SES) families, even after conditioning on prior measures of school performance. We then provide causal evidence that a low-intensity mentoring program can improve long-run education outcomes of low SES children and reduce inequality of opportunity. Low SES children, who were randomly assigned to a mentor for one year are 20 percent more likely to enter a high track program. The mentoring relationship affects both parents and children and has positive long-term implications for children’s educational trajectories.

Organizers:

Benoît SCHMUTZ (Laboratoire de Microéconométrie-CREST)
Anthony STRITTMATTER (Laboratoire de Microéconométrie-CREST)
Sponsors:
CREST