IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-04976868.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Parental Income and Higher Education: Evidence From France

Author

Listed:
  • Cécile Bonneau

    (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres)

  • Sébastien Grobon

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, COR - Conseil d'Orientation des Retraites)

Abstract

This paper offers new stylized facts on inequality of enrollment in higher education according to parental income in France. On average, an increment of 10 percentiles in the parental income distribution is associated with a 5.8 percentage-point increase in the proportion of individuals entering higher education. This degree of inequality is strikingly close to that observed in the United States. We identify potential explanatory factors behind this similar degree of inequality in two markedly different institutional contexts. We then explore one consequence of enrollment disparities, assessing the distribution of spending on higher education.

Suggested Citation

  • Cécile Bonneau & Sébastien Grobon, 2025. "Parental Income and Higher Education: Evidence From France," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-04976868, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-04976868
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04976868v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04976868v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertrand Garbinti & Cecilia Garc a Pe alosa & Vladimir Pecheu & Fr d rique Savignac, 2023. "Trends and Inequality in Lifetime Earnings in France," Working papers 925, Banque de France.
    2. William R. Johnson, 2006. "Are Public Subsidies to Higher Education Regressive?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(3), pages 288-315, June.
    3. Gustave Kenedi & Louis Sirugue, 2023. "Intergenerational income mobility in France: a comparative and geographical analysis," PSE Working Papers halshs-04563025, HAL.
    4. Kenedi, Gustave & Sirugue, Louis, 2023. "Intergenerational income mobility in France: A comparative and geographic analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    5. Gustave Kenedi & Louis Sirugue, 2023. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in France: A Comparative and Geographic Analysis," PSE Working Papers halshs-04423899, HAL.
    6. Joseph A. Pechman, 1970. "The Distributional Effects of Public Higher Education in California: A Review Article," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 5(3), pages 361-370.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cécile Bonneau & Sébastien Grobon, 2025. "Parental Income and Higher Education: Evidence From France," Post-Print halshs-04976868, HAL.
    2. Leah Boustan & Mathias Fjællegaard Jensen & Ran Abramitzky & Elisa Jácome & Alan Manning & Santiago Pérez & Analysia Watley & Adrian Adermon & Jaime Arellano-Bover & Olof Åslund & Marie Connolly & Nat, 2025. "Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in 15 Destination Countries," NBER Working Papers 33558, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Cécile Bonneau & Sébastien Grobon, 2022. "Parental Income and Higher Education Patterns: Evidence From France," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 22005rr, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, revised Dec 2023.
    4. Howard Chernick, 2010. "Redistribution at the State and Local Level: Consequences for Economic Growth," Public Finance Review, , vol. 38(4), pages 409-449, July.
    5. Cécile Bonneau & Sébastien Grobon, 2022. "Unequal access to higher education based on parental income: evidence from France ," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-03693195, HAL.
    6. Carlos Renato De Melo Castro & Maria Eduarda Tannuri-Pianto, 2018. "Educação Superior Pública No Brasil: Custos, Benefícios E Efeitos Distributivos," Anais do XLIV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 44th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 64, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    7. Cook, Emily E. & Turner, Sarah, 2022. "Progressivity of pricing at US public universities," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Kane, Thomas J., 1997. "Beyond Tax Relief: Long-Term Challenges in Financing Higher Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(2), pages 335-49, June.
    9. Garfinkel, Irwin & Zilanawala, Afshin, 2015. "Fragile families in the American welfare state," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 210-221.
    10. Hoyt Bleakley & Bhanu Gupta, 2023. "Mind the Gap: Schooling, Informality, and Fiscal Externalities in Nepal," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(4), pages 659-674.
    11. Owen, Sally Margaret Frean, 2017. "The unfortunate regressivity of public natural disaster insurance: Quantifying distributional implications of EQC building cover for New Zealand," Working Paper Series 6720, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    12. Owen, Sally & Noy, Ilan, 2017. "The unfortunate regressivity of public natural hazard insurance: A quantitative analysis of a New Zealand case," Working Paper Series 20247, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    13. Di, Zhu Xiao & Belsky, Eric & Liu, Xiaodong, 2007. "Do homeowners achieve more household wealth in the long run?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3-4), pages 274-290, November.
    14. Kane, Thomas J., 1997. "Beyond Tax Relief: Long-Term Challenges in Financing Higher Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(2), pages 335-349, June.
    15. Sakellariou, Chris & Patrinos, Harry Anthony, 2004. "Incidence analysis of public support to the private education sector in Cote d'Ivoire," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3231, The World Bank.
    16. Gustave Kenedi & Louis Sirugue, 2023. "La mobilité intergénérationnelle de revenus en France : une analyse comparative et géographique," Institut des Politiques Publiques halshs-04439127, HAL.
    17. Jordi Jofre-Monseny & Martin Wimbersky, 2010. "Political economics of higher education finance," Working Papers 2010/17, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    18. Gustave Kenedi & Louis Sirugue, 2023. "Intergenerational income mobility in France: a comparative and geographical analysis," PSE Working Papers halshs-04563025, HAL.
    19. Rainald Borck & Martin Wimbersky, 2014. "Political economics of higher education finance," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 66(1), pages 115-139, January.
    20. Theodore W. Schultz, 1972. "Human Capital: Policy Issues and Research Opportunities," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Research: Retrospect and Prospect, Volume 6, Human Resources, pages 1-84, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-04976868. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.