The timing of puberty and gender differences in educational achievement

In this paper, we study the effect of the timing of puberty on educational achievement and examine to what extent the gender differences in the timing of puberty can explain gender differences in achievement. We use British cohort data that combine information on pubertal development with test scores, behavioral outcomes as well as final educational attainment and earnings. Controlling for age 7 cognitive skills and family background, we show that late pubertal development is associated with a slower rate of cognitive skill growth during adolescence. This disadvantage in cognitive development is also reflected in lower levels of educational attainment and earnings for late developed individ…

It runs in the family?

AbstractFamily background has been shown to be a strong determinant of educational attainment, yet relatively little is known about the role that family background plays in PhD attainment or in the selection into academic careers. In this study, we estimate sibling correlations from Finnish full population register data to comprehensively assess the importance of family background in selection into academia. Our results show that family background accounts for over a third of the overall variation in becoming a PhD and subsequently an academic — a share which is up to four times as large as implied by conventional comparisons by parental education. However, we did not find evidence that fam…

Tohtoreiden siskot ja veljet

Tohtorit kulkevat usein samanlaisia koulutuspolkuja: korkeakoulutettujen vanhempien perheistä samojen lukioiden kautta tutkijanuralle. Uusi tutkimus tarkastelee tohtoreiden valikoitumista heidän sisarustensa kautta. nonPeerReviewed

Equal access to the top? Measuring selection into finnish academia

In this article, we draw a parallel between equality of opportunity in educational transitions and equality of opportunity in academic careers. In both cases, many methodological problems can be ameliorated by the use of longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data. We illustrate this point by using Finnish full-population register data to follow the educational and academic careers of the 1964–1966 birth cohorts from birth to the present day. We show how the Finnish professoriate is highly selected both in terms of parental background and in terms of gender. Individuals of different backgrounds differ greatly in the likelihood of completing different educational and academic transitions, …

Why Finnish polytechnics reject top applicants

I use a panel of higher education clearinghouse data to study the centralized assignment of applicants to Finnish polytechnics. Many top applicants remain completely unassigned each year. The same applicants' future applications reveal that many of them should have been admitted to a different program immediately. The application system, however, discourages applicants from applying to multiple programs within the same year, while at the same time leaving them in the dark on the set of programs willing to admit them. Improvements to the application system have the potential to substantially reduce reapplications, thereby shortening long queues into Finnish higher education. peerReviewed

Cognitive consequences of the timing of puberty

In this paper, we use British cohort data to study the degree to which children at different stages of pubertal development at age 11 and 16 differ in their cognitive and behavioral outcomes at age 16 as well as in their completed educational attainment and adult earnings. Controlling for age 7 cognitive skills, region of birth, father's socioeconomic status and parents’ education, we show that boys’ late pubertal development is associated with lower levels of cognitive skills at 16, lower final educational attainment, and lower earnings in adulthood. For girls we find a similar negative relationship between late puberty and cognitive skills, but only imprecise relationships between the tim…

Work and studies in Finland during COVID-19