ABSTRACT
A common approach to understanding structural changes in educational inequality is to examine shifts in education attainment. Researchers adopting this approach usually predict the effects of family background variables (i.e., socio-economic-status (SES) in a given society) on individuals’ education attainment (e.g., highest level of education achieved or number of years of education) by comparing changes in coefficients obtained through statistical methods such as regression analysis (Ishida 1993; Ishida et al. 1995; Shavit and Blossfeld 1993). If, for example, a given society has experienced substantial changes in income distribution among families, the resulting income gaps can be linked to structural changes visible in inequalities in education attainment across generations. Since educational attainment is regarded as a key resource for enhancing one’s life chances in terms of employment, marriage, or other means, analyses of educational attainment can yield broader views on structural changes in educational inequality, one key dimension of macro-level societal change.
