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In this paper, we analyse social inequalities along the horizontal dimension of education in Italy. More precisely, we focus on the role of family background in completing specific fields of study at both secondary and tertiary levels of education. To mitigate the limitations of the traditional sequential model, we construct a typology of educational paths based on two axes: the prestige of one's choice of high school track (academic or vocational) and the labour market returns of the university field of study in terms of monthly net income (high or low). We identify four paths: academic-high, academic-low, vocational-high, and vocational-low. We investigate the influence of social inequalities on educational path using data from the Istat ''Survey on the transition to work of University graduates'' regarding cohorts of university graduates in 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007. Results obtained from multinomial logistic regressions confirm predictions based on rational action theory. We find that family background, defined in terms of parental education, is positively and significantly associated with the completion of the most advantageous educational path. Moreover, we find that high-performing students from lower socio-economic backgrounds show a higher probability of completing the vocational-high path. This result suggests that a vocational upper secondary degree could be perceived as a sort of safety option for students from less wealthy families, which allows them to invest in the most lucrative and risky fields at university.

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The chapter focus on the educational ethnic gap of children of immigrants in Italy. Previous studies mainly adopted a synchronic approach, implicitly assuming that the differences between students with and without a migration background, as well as mechanisms underlying these differences, are constant throughout the educational career. This hypothesis is empirically tested thanks to INVALSI data and a series of four-levels random intercept regression models (student, class, school and province). Results indicate that the importance of contextual factors on the ethnic gap in achievements is marginal to the relevance of individual characteristics, and that children of immigrants underperform natives at each educational level. However, assessing the independent role of ethnicity on the one hand, and migration on the other, it emerges that: while the negative influence of the migration experience is strongest at higher grades, the effect of ethnicity changes from negative to positive during the educational career. The chapter discusses the mechanisms underlying the results and the possible implications in terms of social policies.