Determinants of the choice of high school track in Turkey

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1630629 (Table of Contents)

This study attempts to find out main determinants of high school track choice in Turkey, particularly the vocational high schools. For this purpose we use Labor Force Surey data and estimate multinomial logit and nested logit models. We find that higher the parental education higher, family income or birth ranking of the students the higher is the likelihood of attending a general/academic high school rather than a vocational high school. Increase in total number of children in the family, on the other hand, increases the probability of attending a vocational high school. Residing in an urban area increases the probability of attending a vocational high school more than a general high school. Another finding is that the probabilty of choosing a vocational education track has significantly increased over years 2003-2015. Finally, we find a positive relationship between the number of a type of high school in a given region and the probabilty of choosing that type of high school.