In their widely cited study, Shavit and Blossfeld report stability of socioeconomic inequalities in educational attainment over much of the 20th century in 11 out of 13 countries. This article outlines reasons why one might expect to find declining class inequalities in educational attainment, and, using a large data set, the authors analyze educational inequality among cohorts born in the first two-thirds of the 20th century in eight European countries. They find, as expected, a widespread decline in educational inequality between students coming from different social origins. Their results are robust to other possible choices of method and variables, and the authors offer some explanations of why their findings contradict Shavit and Blossfeld's conclusions.

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Collectivist versus individualist mobility regimes? Structural change and job mobility in four countriesDiPrete, Th.A.; de Graaf, P.M.; Luijkx, R.; Tåhlin, M.; Blossfeld, H.-P.

Presents the results of the comparative analyses of absolute mobility and social fluidity in 11 European countries covering the period 1970 to 2000. Findings are presented separately for men and for women. We find a marked convergence between countries in their patterns and rates of absolute social mobility. There is also a widespread tendency for class inequalities in mobility chances to diminish over time, though there remain quite substantial variations in this respect between countries.

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