Effectively Maintained Inequality: Education Transitions, Track Mobility, and Social Background Effects

2001/05/01 by Samuel R. Lucas, Samuel R. Lucas · 1,667 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Curriculum #Demographic economics #Economic growth #Economics #Educational attainment #Educational inequality #Framing (construction) #Inequality #Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies #Labor market dynamics and wage inequality #Mathematics #Pedagogy #Political science #Psychology #Salient #School Choice and Performance #Social comparison theory #Social inequality #Social mobility #Social psychology #Social science #Social stratification #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1086/321300

published in American Journal of Sociology 106(6), 1642-1690 (University of Chicago Press)

openalex publication_date 2001/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

This article proposes a general explanation for social background‐related inequality. Educational attainment research indicates that the later an education transition, the lower the social background effect. While some suggest life course changes in the parent‐child relationship or between‐family competition explain this pattern, others contend the result is a statistical artifact, and that the analytic strategy presupposes agents are irrationally myopic. This article addresses these criticisms by framing educational transitions in terms of students' movement through the stratified curriculum. Students select their stratum, one of which is dropping out. To make these choices, they consider their most recent salient performance. Using time‐varying performance measures to predict students' track placement/school continuation sustains the validity of the educational transitions approach and suggests substantively important social background effects even for nearly universal transitions. Results are consistent with the general perspective termed effectively maintained inequality.

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