Research on educational mobility usually studies socioeconomic differences at the mean of children’s academic performance but fails to consider the variation in the shape of socioeconomic differences across the outcome distribution. Theories of social mobility as well as theories about the resource allocation within families predict such variation. We use quantile regression models to estimate variation in socioeconomic differences across the distribution of academic performance using different indicators of family background (parental education, occupation, earnings, and wealth). We apply this approach to data on Germany, Norway, and the United States, three countries that represent different welfare and education regimes that may affect the intergenerational transmission of educational advantage. We find stronger socioeconomic differences at the bottom than at the middle and the smallest differences at the top of the performance distribution. These findings are virtually identical across all four indicators of family background. We also find no cross-national differences in the shape of socioeconomic differences in academic performance.

中文翻译：

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在顶部加强还是在底部补偿？德国、挪威和美国的家庭背景和学业成绩

关于教育流动性的研究通常以儿童学业成绩的平均值来研究社会经济差异，但未能考虑结果分布中社会经济差异形状的变化。社会流动理论以及家庭内部资源分配理论预测了这种变化。我们使用分位数回归模型，使用不同的家庭背景指标（父母教育、职业、收入和财富）来估计学业成绩分布中社会经济差异的变化。我们将这种方法应用于德国、挪威和美国的数据，这三个国家代表不同的福利和教育制度，可能会影响教育优势的代际传递。我们发现底部的社会经济差异比中间的更大，而绩效分布顶部的差异最小。这些发现在所有四个家庭背景指标中几乎相同。我们还发现，在学业成绩的社会经​​济差异形态方面没有跨国差异。