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Unequal education and the 'Great Gatsby Curve'

Jo Blanden, Matthias Doepke and Jan Stuhler


In modern economies, people's livelihoods are based in large part on skills acquired through education. Unequal education therefore drives both inequality in the labour market and low social mobility across generations. This column reviews the evidence on how family background shapes differences in educational outcomes, mechanisms, and the potential role of policy. The implications of educational inequality are pertinent given the Covid-19 pandemic, in which widespread school closures have created new challenges to learning that put children from low-income families at a particular disadvantage.


20 December 2022


Vox EU


https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/unequal-education-and-great-gatsby-curve

This Blog is published under the centre's Education programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Inequality and social mobility