The Role of Higher Education in Economic Inequalities and Intergenerational Social Mobility: Empirical Evidence from South Korea and Lessons from the UK
type: CreativeWork
description: Many people are convinced that a higher education degree will guarantee good career aspects for any student, regardless of their family background (Connor et al., 2001; Cho, 2016). Whilst higher education indeed plays a role as an insurance mechanism against the risk of unemployment in many contexts (Office for National Statistics, 2017; Hwang, 2021), a vast body of literature has shown that income-related gaps in both access to and success in higher education are now substantial and has therefore questioned the role of higher education as social mobility’s greatest hope (Canny, 2001; Chetty et al., 2017; Britton et al., 2019; Lee & Choi, 2020). As such, distinguishing between the impacts of family background and higher education on graduates’ later earnings and social mobility outcomes is critical to gain a deeper understanding of the role of higher education in reducing economic inequalities and promoting intergenerational social mobility. This is particularly relevant in the case of South Korea, a context that has seen a dramatic increase in access to higher education and higher earnings of the population with a higher education degree over the past few decades. For the above reasons, the aim of this thesis is to examine intergenerational social mobility mainly in South Korea using further insights from the United Kingdom with various empirical models exploring the role of higher education in economic inequalities and intergenerational social (income) mobility. South Korea is still at its early stage of social mobility research where more evidence is needed on the various determinants of social mobility in that particular context. Given the lack of data however, it is difficult to examine many potential determinants of social mobility in South Korea, namely spatial inequalities. Hence, the case of the United Kingdom is also examined to learn more about the impacts of spatial inequalities on graduates’ earnings and social mobility outcomes. Considering the case of…
abstract: Many people are convinced that a higher education degree will guarantee good career aspects for any student, regardless of their family background (Connor et al., 2001; Cho, 2016). Whilst higher education indeed plays a role as an insurance mechanism against the risk of unemployment in many contexts (Office for National Statistics, 2017; Hwang, 2021), a vast body of literature has shown that income-related gaps in both access to and success in higher education are now substantial and has therefore questioned the role of higher education as social mobility’s greatest hope (Canny, 2001; Chetty et al., 2017; Britton et al., 2019; Lee & Choi, 2020). As such, distinguishing between the impacts of family background and higher education on graduates’ later earnings and social mobility outcomes is critical to gain a deeper understanding of the role of higher education in reducing economic inequalities and promoting intergenerational social mobility. This is particularly relevant in the case of South Korea, a context that has seen a dramatic increase in access to higher education and higher earnings of the population with a higher education degree over the past few decades. For the above reasons, the aim of this thesis is to examine intergenerational social mobility mainly in South Korea using further insights from the United Kingdom with various empirical models exploring the role of higher education in economic inequalities and intergenerational social (income) mobility. South Korea is still at its early stage of social mobility research where more evidence is needed on the various determinants of social mobility in that particular context. Given the lack of data however, it is difficult to examine many potential determinants of social mobility in South Korea, namely spatial inequalities. Hence, the case of the United Kingdom is also examined to learn more about the impacts of spatial inequalities on graduates’ earnings and social mobility outcomes. Considering the case of…
author: Lee, Sangwoo
language: eng
keywords: Intergenerational Social Mobility, Higher Education, Quantitative Analysis, South Korea, United Kingdom
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2022-04-26
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:27Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.87581