The Evolution of Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Turkey

We investigate the role of intergenerational transmission in educational outcomes and inequalities for cohorts born between 1951 and 1985 in Turkey via the Turkish Statistical Institute's Intergenerational Transmission of Disadvantages Module in 2011. Our results show that Turkey has a relatively low degree of intergenerational educational mobility. Further, the primary measures of intergenerational educational mobility - the regression and correlation coefficients via years of schooling - exhibit a U-shape over the sample period. Our first decomposition exercise reveals that the early cohorts' improving intergenerational mobility stems mainly from the educational improvements of descendants born to low-educated fathers. In contrast, the recently increasing intergenerational correlation stems from the disproportionately favorable university prospects of descendants born to university graduate fathers. Moreover, we decompose the correlation coefficient via a second methodology and show that 91% of the correlation stems from within-subgroup correlations. Specifically, the contribution of urban (rural) males and females average 32% and 44% (7% and 8%), respectively.