Inequality and social mobility
CEP research has documented Britain's high level of educational inequality and lack of social mobility, which continues to worsen. We find that socio-economic inequalities in educational attainment are very big even at an early age.
Contrary to the findings of US research on how early years' policies can reduce inequalities, we found that roll-out of fully subsidised part-time nursery places in England in the 2000s had effects that were small and short-lived.
Inequalities are then reinforced from primary school onwards. Our work shows that among the reasons for low social mobility is poor access to high-quality schools by economically-disadvantaged groups. The increase in house prices near high-quality schools shows that parents value schools by student prior achievement and school valued-added. But even though choice is available, poorer parents cannot make use of it because they cannot afford the catchment areas where school quality has inflated house prices.
Unfortunately, where criteria such as catchment areas are replaced by other school admissions policies, such as regular religious attendance for entry to faith schools, children from poorer families still find it more difficult to gain entry. Selectivity in education has also contributed to the decline in social mobility. We find that the apparent educational advantage of schools that have more autonomy over their admissions is purely attributable to the composition of such schools. Other work demonstrates that those who attend private schools earn more and that this dividend has increased over time. On the other hand, reforms that make the education system less selective may improve access to opportunity: CEP research found this to be the case for reforms to grammar schools in Northern Ireland.
Featured Work
Inequality and social mobility publications
Sandra McNally, Guglielmo Ventura and Gill Wyness
1 July 2024
Lee Elliot Major, Stephen Gibbons, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj
1 July 2024
Lee Elliot Major, Andrew Eyles, Esme Lillywhite and Stephen Machin
20 June 2024
Lee Elliot Major, Andrew Eyles, Esme Lillywhite and Stephen Machin
24 April 2024
Gustave Kenedi and Louis Sirugue
12 April 2024
Lucas Gortazar, Claudia Hupkau and Antonio Roldan
19 March 2024
Lee Elliot Major
27 February 2024
Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela
31 October 2023
Lindsey Macmillan and Gill Wyness
15 June 2023
Lee Elliot Major, Andrew Eyles and Myung Jin
12 June 2023
Chiara Cavaglia, Sandra McNally and Guglielmo Ventura
21 February 2023
Jo Blanden, Matthias Doepke and Jan Stuhler
1 January 2023
Jo Blanden, Matthias Doepke and Jan Stuhler
20 December 2022
Jo Blanden, Matthias Doepke and Jan Stuhler
20 October 2022
Lee Elliot Major and Andrew Eyles
17 October 2022
Christine Farquharson, Sandra McNally and Imran Tahir
16 August 2022
Pilar Cuevas-Ruiz and Almudena Sevilla
21 June 2022