Benita Combet

Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich | LMU · Sociology

A large literature shows that families with more resources are able to provide better learning environments and make more ambitious educational choices for their children. At the end of compulsory education, the result is a social-origin gap in school-track attendance and learning outcomes. Our paper analyses whether this gap further widens thereaf...

Previous research on educational aspirations and educational decision-making has mostly focused on high-income countries and thus on a relatively homogeneous socio-economic context. However, educational decision-making may be sensitive to contextual factors such as economic deprivation, a dysfunctional welfare state or poor access to credit markets...

Previous research on educational aspirations and educational decision-making has mostly focused on high-income countries and thus on a relatively homogeneous socio-economic context. However, educational decision-making may be sensitive to contextual factors such as economic deprivation, a dysfunctional welfare state or poor access to credit markets...

A large body of literature shows that families with extended soci o-economic resources are able to provide better learning environments and make more ambitious educational choices for their chil- dren. At the end of compulsory education, the result is a social-origin gap in school-track attend- ance and learning outcomes. Our paper analyses wh ethe...

This article examines to what extent the specific institutional arrangement of an education system moderates the influence of social background on students’ track allocation, and whether this happens via primary or secondary effects of social origin. I tackle the problem of omitted-variable bias by analyzing subnational education systems in Switzer...

According to a popular argument in economics, the gender wage gap persists not because of employer discrimination against women, but because of the differential investment of fathers and mothers into paid work and the household. We test this argument by comparing the evolution of wages between men and women before the onset of family formation and...

According to a popular argument in economics, the gender wage gap persists not because of employer discrimination against women, but because of the differential investment of fathers and mothers into paid work and the household. We test this argument by comparing the evolution of wages between men and women before the onset of family formation and...

A long-standing hypothesis in the sociology of education is that the timing of ability tracking impacts the inequality of educational opportunity. While earlier studies mainly focused on how early tracking impacts the primary effect of social origin (systematic performance differences due to social background), the impact of early tracking on the s...

Aufgrund des meritokratischen Prinzips sollte die soziale Herkunft idealerweise keinen Einfluss auf den Erwerb höherer Bildung ausüben. Diverse Studien zeigen jedoch, dass in der Schweiz ein starker Zusammenhang zwischen der sozialen Herkunftsschicht und dem erreichten Bildungsabschluss besteht. In diesem Artikel wird untersucht, wie sich die sozia...

The transmission of social positions from parents to children is a core topic in the analysis of social stratification. Despite the widespread interest in the topic and notwithstanding a strong international literature, there is only little empirical evidence for Switzerland on the development of effects of social origin. We provide a systematic an...