Working Papers

Alina Verashchagina| 11.09.2009

Education and Socioeconomic Mobility in Post-Communist Countries

Patterns of intergenerational educational mobility are studied in thirteen post-communist countries of Cental Europe and the former Soviet Union. No clear trend in educational inheritance emerges over the recent 50 years, covering both the period of socialism and transition to a market economy. This is contrary to expectations formed by the existing literature that claims considerable weakening of the correlation between parental education and that of their children during the period of socialism. If any, we …nd the decrease in intergenerational persistance up until the generation of the 1950s. In subsequent years no further decline is observed. On the contrary in a number of states the correlation between parents’ and children’s schooling got stronger, further increasing over the period of transition.