Kristian Koerselman's Avatar

Kristian Koerselman

@economistatwork.com.bsky.social

Education economist at the University of Jyväskylä. Researches weird things like why Finnish unis reject top applicants, and whether Finnish academics all come from the same families. Mostly over at Mastodon. http://economistatwork.com

170 Followers  |  171 Following  |  3 Posts  |  Joined: 12.11.2023  |  1.3935

Latest posts by economistatwork.com on Bluesky

Figure showing intergenerational mobility estimates into doctoral education for 26 European countries and five regional country groups.

Figure showing intergenerational mobility estimates into doctoral education for 26 European countries and five regional country groups.

Nordics are slightly more mobile — no surprise — but across a highly diverse set of countries and education systems, the degree of intergenerational mobility into the PhD is both relatively high and remarkably similar.

13.06.2025 10:24 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
Screenshot of the title page of the paper titled "Intergenerational mobility into doctoral education across Europe". Abstract: Despite increasing concerns over socioeconomic barriers in access to doctoral education, relatively little is known about the degree to which PhDs are selected in terms of their social background. In this paper, we use combined data on over 200~000 individuals from the European Social Survey, the European Values Study, and the World Values Survey to estimate the strength of the relationship between parental education and child PhD attainment within 26 European countries. We find that intergenerational mobility into PhD degrees is somewhat higher in the Nordic countries, and somewhat lower in the Eastern European countries in our sample, but also that mobility is generally high, that PhDs are socioeconomically diverse, and that mobility differences between the countries in our sample are generally small.

Screenshot of the title page of the paper titled "Intergenerational mobility into doctoral education across Europe". Abstract: Despite increasing concerns over socioeconomic barriers in access to doctoral education, relatively little is known about the degree to which PhDs are selected in terms of their social background. In this paper, we use combined data on over 200~000 individuals from the European Social Survey, the European Values Study, and the World Values Survey to estimate the strength of the relationship between parental education and child PhD attainment within 26 European countries. We find that intergenerational mobility into PhD degrees is somewhat higher in the Nordic countries, and somewhat lower in the Eastern European countries in our sample, but also that mobility is generally high, that PhDs are socioeconomically diverse, and that mobility differences between the countries in our sample are generally small.

Are European universities exclusionary ivory towers, limiting access to doctoral education to children of the elites?

Short answer: No.

New paper with @economistatwork.com et al forthcoming in @europeansocieties.bsky.social (🧵 1/4)

13.06.2025 10:24 — 👍 7    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0

This place is nice and all, but I'm super worried about the lack of #MFA. #BlueSky

17.11.2023 11:47 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The next step is realizing how many computer systems will reject it thinking that it's a mistyped personnummer.

17.11.2023 11:02 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Duo accepts Yubikeys nowadays, right? Yubikeys are cool?

14.11.2023 13:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

We have a new working paper: “The (Un)importance of School Assignment”. 1/9
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wuizq...

13.11.2023 08:12 — 👍 20    🔁 7    💬 2    📌 3

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