Recent studies in China often report negative effects of cultural capital on educational achievement. This study revisits that claim by examining its effect, underlying mechanisms, and heterogeneity. Drawing on longitudinal data from the China Education Panel Survey, four main findings emerge. First, after accounting for negative selection, the supposed negative effects of cultural capital disappear. More broadly, cultural capital shows no significant overall effect on educational achievement, contrary to what cultural capital theory would usually predict. Nevertheless, cultural capital and educational achievement remain indirectly linked through institutional processes. Second, the analysis provides empirical support for a new concept, institutionalized negative selection, defined as a process in which low-achieving students select into extracurricular activities in pursuit of better educational credentials, a pattern supported by formal educational institutions. Third, although no evidence supports the conventional mechanisms that cultural capital reduces study time or enhances cognitive or non-cognitive learning skills, highbrow cultural participation is associated with greater structural teacher favouritism (i.e. praising and cold-calling on students in class), which in turn improves educational achievement. Fourth, institutionalized negative selection is found only among low-socioeconomic status (SES) students, supporting the cultural mobility model, whereas structural teacher favouritism is more pronounced among high-SES students and in high-SES schools, supporting the cultural reproduction model. These findings show that, in China, institutionalized negative selection and structural teacher favouritism are two important pathways linking cultural capital and educational achievement. This reveals how cultural capital can both promote educational mobility and perpetuate educational inequality, depending on how educational institutions value cultural capital.
Economic inequality has become a pressing societal challenge worldwide, yet less is known about how individuals perceive and evaluate it. Drawing on longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS 2012-2018), this study uses modified hierarchical linear models to examine how objective inequality interacts with economic growth in shaping subjective inequality. The results show, first, that the average association between objective inequality and respondents' severity ratings of inequality (SRI) is weak and not statistically significant. Second, economic growth moderates this association: objective inequality is associated with higher SRI only under low-growth conditions. Finally, this moderating role of economic growth is salient only among socio-economically disadvantaged individuals. These findings enhance our understanding of how individuals view economic inequality in China's post-high-speed growth era and provide broader comparative implications for societies characterized by different configurations of inequality and economic growth.
Abstract Prior observational research suggests that at the beginning of their careers, workers benefit from having specific education, as education that is closely linked to specific jobs. These relative payoffs to educational specificity, however, decline across the life-course. One central explanation for this is on the employer side: for late-career candidates, employers may perceive specific qualifications as a signal of outdated and inflexible skills. In this paper, we draw on novel data from a factorial survey experiment conducted with employers in Germany and England, to examine whether evaluations of specific education differ for early and late-career candidates. Moreover, we investigate the potential explanatory role of working and training histories. Our results show wide preferences for specific education over more general education, and this preference is strikingly similar for early and late-career candidates in the two countries. Still, for early-career candidates in Germany, we found particularly high evaluations of specificity for candidates with vocational training as compared to university graduates. Moreover, for late-career candidates, our results suggest that hiring agents differently value specificity in the two countries: in Germany, relevant work experience comes with a smaller specificity premium, whereas in England, on-the-job training can compensate for specific education.
This study investigated the longitudinal relationship between learning disabilities (LD) in adolescence and educational attainment, as well as the underlying mechanisms behind this relationship. Using a sibling sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 1,710), this study employed sibling fixed effects models to account for unobserved family-level characteristics such as genes and early childhood family and social context. Sobel mediation analyses were performed on a gender-stratified sample to investigate the following mechanisms: educational aspirations and expectations, educational effort, and school-based relationships. Sibling fixed effects estimates revealed that LD in adolescence was negatively associated with years of schooling completed in adulthood (b = -0.494, P < 0.01). Gender-stratified models showed that only the association for girls was statistically significant (b = -0.689, P < 0.05). Among girls, this association was partially explained by a combination of educational aspirations and expectations, educational effort, and school-based relationships, with educational aspirations and expectations being the most salient mechanism. These findings highlight that LD is not only an individual cognitive designation but also a socially mediated experience with long-term educational consequences, especially for girls. Policymakers and practitioners may consider developing and implementing interventions that address both educational and social challenges faced by girls with LD.
The rapid expansion of platform-mediated gig work has intensified debates over whether gig workers should receive social and employment rights comparable to those of standard employees. Yet, despite its high political salience, we know little about how citizens evaluate gig workers' entitlement to such protections. Gig work, especially in ride hailing and food delivery, is often precarious, with a lack of control at work, weaker contribution records, and overrepresentation of migrant workers-aspects that previous research has identified as central to welfare deservingness judgments. This makes deservingness a particularly relevant lens for analysing public support for gig workers' rights. With a pre-registered factorial vignette experiment in a six-country survey (Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), we examine the general population's willingness to pay for ride-hailing gig workers' improved rights. We find that support for improved rights closely follows core deservingness dimensions: workers perceived as in need, showing effort on the job and lacking control receive higher support, whereas migrant status and low reciprocity reduce it. Yet, deservingness cues explain only part of the variation. Exploratory analyses show that frequent use of gig services and personal ties with gig workers associate with a higher willingness to pay, showing the relevance of intergroup contact.
