An Explanation of Intergenerational Educational Mobility Using the Correlated Mare Model: a Danish Test Case A

We examine Danish student participation in upper secondary and university education in 1985 and 2005 using a generalization of the famous Mare educational transition model. Factors not related to the observed characteristics of the household in which the respondent was raised have become more important relative to observable family background variables for upper secondary school success than they were a generation ago. This conclusion is based a new mobility index which we have developed to measure the relative dependence of respondent educational success on family background variables which in turn resolves a paradox in our empirical results. The conclusion is also con…rmed by the application of the conventional methods that are usually used to measure mobility.