This paper analyses the impact of informal recruitment channels on university enrolment decisions. A widespread diffusion of personal connections as an entry channel to the labour market may signal that social ties to well-off people are necessary to get a good job, thereby convincing students from poorly connected families that getting a tertiary education degree does not enhance their future socio-economic opportunities. By applying estimation techniques with instrumental variables to Italian microdata, I found that upper-secondary students coming from lower social classes are less likely to participate in tertiary education when they live in provinces where the percentage of newly tertiary graduates who found a job through informal channels is higher. My results are consistent with the hypothesis that the wide diffusion of ‘favouritism’ in local labour markets engenders a sense of ‘economic despair’ among poorly connected students, thereby worsening inequality of access to education and local socio-economic development.literature and the hypothesis.
Informal recruitment channels, family background and university enrolments in Italy / Ghignoni, E.. - In: HIGHER EDUCATION. - ISSN 0018-1560. - (2021), pp. 1-29. [10.1007/s10734-020-00578-3]
Informal recruitment channels, family background and university enrolments in Italy
Ghignoni E.
2021
Abstract
This paper analyses the impact of informal recruitment channels on university enrolment decisions. A widespread diffusion of personal connections as an entry channel to the labour market may signal that social ties to well-off people are necessary to get a good job, thereby convincing students from poorly connected families that getting a tertiary education degree does not enhance their future socio-economic opportunities. By applying estimation techniques with instrumental variables to Italian microdata, I found that upper-secondary students coming from lower social classes are less likely to participate in tertiary education when they live in provinces where the percentage of newly tertiary graduates who found a job through informal channels is higher. My results are consistent with the hypothesis that the wide diffusion of ‘favouritism’ in local labour markets engenders a sense of ‘economic despair’ among poorly connected students, thereby worsening inequality of access to education and local socio-economic development.literature and the hypothesis.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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