The educational wealth divide in Europe: Post-secondary enrollment gaps across wealth components and countries

Wealth is a key dimension of socioeconomic status (SES) and its intergenerational transmission, with parental wealth positively affecting children's educational outcomes. Previous research, however, has been limited to a small number of countries, and effect sizes that are hardly comparable across institutional contexts. Furthermore, the specific role of different wealth components remain unclear. This study addresses these gaps by comparing wealth gaps in education – measured as enrolment in post-secondary education – and examining the role of various wealth components across 15 European countries using harmonized data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. We find significant wealth gaps in education in all countries. In 10 countries, these gaps remain after controlling for other dimensions of parental SES. Regarding net wealth, our study documents substantial education gaps in Southern and Eastern European and smaller gaps in most Continental countries. In most countries, real wealth is the primary driver of these educational disparities. Conversely, the association between debt and post-secondary enrolment varies from positive to negative across countries. Our findings highlight the importance of parental real assets for education and the ambivalent and context specific role of debt.