A dynamic analysis of educational progression of children of immigrants

This paper uses a parsimonious version of Cameron and Heckman's (2001) dynamic model of educational progression to determine at what stages of their educational careers children of immigrants fall behind their native peers and the magnitude of intergenerational transmission. The analyses are primarily directed towards explaining high dropout rates from vocational upper secondary education, identified as the main barrier to educational attainment. The results corroborate previous findings that family background is an important determinant of educational outcomes but also suggest that differences in endowments alone do not explain the observed gap in educational attainment between natives and ethnic minorities.