Intergenerational Mobility in Educational Attainments

This paper investigates intergenerational educational mobility, a non-monetary measure of socioeconomic status in Pakistan. Data from the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurements (PSLM-2012-13) are used for empirical analysis. Contingency tables and multinomial logit model are utilised. Results indicate strong evidence of intergenerational linkages in educational attainments between fathers and their sons. Although findings reveal some degree of upward mobility, opportunities are not equal for all. Chances for attainment of higher education for sons of fathers with education up to the secondary level only, are not as prevalent as for sons of highly educated fathers. Further, urban areas show higher mobility as compared to rural areas. Results also reveal that the affluent are more likely to attain higher levels of education than the financially disadvantaged. In addition, sons of affluent families in rural areas are less likely to attain higher levels of education compared to the sons of the affluent in urban areas. Our findings also support evidence in favour of the child quality- quantity trade-off as shown by negative impacts of family size on attainment of higher levels of education.