Intergenerational mobility in education in Turkey

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1606898 (Table of Contents)

Despite enactment of Constitution No. 42 “No one shall be deprived of the right of education”, there is substantial difference among individuals’ educational levels. In addition, the centralized and egalitarian education system in Turkey reduces the cost of education for poor families, and so it should make intergenerational mobility easier. Nevertheless there is strong association between education level of individuals and their family background. In this thesis we try to figure out the degree of association between fathers’ and individuals’ education levels. During the analysis we use the Markov chain model and indices obtained from transition probability matrices. Also to add further controls we run OLS and ordered logit estimation. For genders, age groups, religiosity groups and ethnicities we run separate ordered logit regressions. Our results show that intergenerational mobility in Turkey is lower than Italy and the US. Our in-group comparisons show that female individuals are less mobile than male individuals and they are less likely to get further education. In terms of age groups, older age groups are less mobile and less likely to get further education. Kurdish individuals are more persistent at bottom category and less mobile than Turkish individuals. The negative effect of being Kurdish is higher at older age groups. In terms of religiosity levels, non believer individuals are more likely to get further education than remaining groups. In addition, pious individuals are less mobile. On the other hand, the negative effect of being female is higher among pious individuals compared to other religiosity levels.