The social and economic determinants of higher education demand and intergenerational educational mobility in Spain

This paper has a two-folded aim: the determinants of Higher Education demand and the intergenerational educational mobility will be analyzed. As database, the EU-SILC (2005) is proposed. Educational demand function is estimated with a dogit model, while educational mobility is approached by using mobility indexes and transition matrix. Main results, referring to Higher Education demand, show a positive and significant impact on demand of mothers' attained educational level and gender issues, as long as the presence of children and unemployed in a household has a negative influence. On the other hand, and related to mobility, for the Spanish case, children are more likely to attain higher levels of education than their parents. Besides, parents attaining the highest education level is a strong determinant of their children educational level.