E D U C A T I O N A L I N E Q U A L I T Y

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1、ScottishJournalofPoliticalEconomy,Vol.60,No.5,November2013©ScottishEconomicSociety2004,PublishedbyBlackwellPublishing,9600GarsingtonRoad,OxfordOX42DQ,UKand350MainStreet,Malden,MA02148,USAEDUCATIONALINEQUALITYANDTHEEXPANSIONOFUKHIGHEREDUCATIONJoBlandenandSteph

2、enMachin*ABSTRACTInthispaperweexplorechangesovertimeinhighereducation(HE)participa-tionandattainmentbetweenpeoplefromricherandpoorerfamilybackgroundsduringatimeperiodwhentheUKhighereducationsystemexpandedatarapidrate.Weuselongitudinaldatafromthreetimeperiodst

3、ostudytemporalshiftsinHEparticipationandattainmentacrossparentalincomegroupsforchildrengoingtouniversityinthe1970s,1980sand1990s.Thekeyfindingisahighlypolicyrelevantone,namelythatHEexpansionhasnotbeenequallydistributedacrosspeoplefromricherandpoorerbackgrounds

4、.Rather,ithasdisproportion-atelybenefitedchildrenfromrelativelyrichfamilies.DespitethefactthatmanymorechildrenfromhigherincomebackgroundsparticipatedinHEbeforetherecentexpansionofthesystem,theexpansionactedtowidenparticipationgapsbetweenrichandpoorchildren.Thi

5、sfindingisrobusttodifferentmeasuresofeducationparticipationandinequality.Italsoemergesfromnon-parametricesti-mationsandfromamoredetailedeconometricmodelallowingforthesequentialnatureofeducationchoiceswithpotentiallydifferentincomeassociationsatdif-ferentstagesof

6、theeducationsequence.IINTRODUCTIONTheUKHigherEducation(HE)Systemhasexpandedmassivelyinrecentdecades,withstudentnumbersrisingfrom400,000inthe1960sto2,000,000attheturnofthenewcentury(GreenawayandHaynes,2003).Oneinthreenowparticipateinhighereducationascomparedto

7、oneinsixteenatthestartofthe1960s.ManycommentatorsbelievethisexpansiontobeagoodthingsinceincreasedHEraisesskilllevelstherebycontributingpositivelytonationalproductivity.Moreover,itissometimesarguedthatincreasededuca-tionalopportunitiesareassociatedwithgreatere

8、qualityofopportunityasmoreuniversityplacesoffergreaterpotentialfortheadvancementofstudentsfrompoorerbackgrounds.*UniversityCollegeLondonandCentreforEconomicPerformance,LondonSchoolofEconom