Parental Income and Higher Education: Evidence from France

This paper offers new stylized facts on inequality of enrollment in higher education according to parental income in France. On average, an increment of 10 percentiles in the parental income distribution is associated with a 5.8 percentage point increase in the proportion of individuals entering higher education. This degree of inequality is strikingly close to that observed in the United States. We identify potential explanatory factors behind this similar degree of inequality in two markedly different institutional contexts. We then explore one consequence of enrollment disparities, assessing the distribution of spending on higher education.