J F Birkelund
Biographic Data
| ID | 51300 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J F Birkelund |
| GIVEN NAMES | J F |
| FAMILY NAME | Birkelund |
| SIGNATURE | BIRKELUND J F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Copenhagen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2375-9832 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Teacher Bias, Socioeconomic Inequality, and the Role of Academic Reputations
Prior research suggests teachers’ evaluations may be influenced by students’ socioeconomic background, yet most evidence comes from experimental settings that overlook biases arising in real student-teacher interactions. This article exploits a 2016 Danish reform that introduced external evaluation of a ninth-grade essay exam to examine whether teachers grade socioeconomically advantaged students more favorably than do external examiners. Using a…
Educational tracking and social inequalities in long-term labor market outcomes
In this country-comparative study, we ask to what extent differentiation in secondary education accounts for the association between social origins and social destinations in adult age. We go beyond the widely applied formal definitions of educational tracking and particularly pay attention to country-specific approaches to educational differentiation. Our main expectation is that once we factor in these particularities, the degree to which educa…
Economic returns to reproducing parents' field of study
Research on the influence of family background on college graduates' earnings has not considered the importance of the match between parents' and children's field of study. Using a novel design based on within-family comparisons, I examine long-term earnings returns to reproducing parents' field of study in Denmark. I find that individuals whose field of study matches that of a parent have earnings that are 2 percent higher than those of their si…
Origins of attainment
We study the overlap in the overall impact of family background on two widely studied labour market outcomes by considering whether brother similarities in occupational status are rooted in the same underlying family characteristics that affect brother similarities in income. We extend previous research using sibling correlations as an omnibus measure of total family background impact on a given outcome by directly quantifying how brother correla…
Educational Tracking and Personality Formation
Although educational stratification research finds that educational tracking differentiates the development of cognitive skills and academic achievement, little is known about its consequences for noncognitive traits. This paper presents a framework for understanding how track placement affects personality traits and empirically tests its implications using longitudinal survey data from Denmark. I find that enrollment in the vocational track in u…
No evidence of a major learning slide 14 months into the Covid-19 pandemic in Denmark
We study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s academic performance in Denmark 14 months into the pandemic using nationwide and exceptionally rich data on reading test scores and family background (N ≈ 200,000 per year). We find no evidence of a major learning loss. While pupils in grade 8 experienced a three percentile points loss in reading performance, pupils in grades 2 and 4 experienced a learning gain of about five percentile p…
Long-term labor market returns to upper secondary school track choice
Family Background, Educational Qualifications, and Labour Market Attainment
Previous studies on how family background affects labour market outcomes among offspring with similar formal educational qualifications are limited either by the way in which they measure family background or by the detail level by which they measure educational attainment. To address these limitations, we develop a comprehensive approach based on sibling similarities in labour market outcomes. Applying the approach to high-quality register data …
Life-Cycle Economic Returns to Educational Mobility in Denmark
Although most studies of the transition from school to work take a snapshot perspective in examining economic returns to education, such returns evolve over an individual's lifetime. We empirically test a theoretical formulation derived from the cumulative advantage mechanism about enduring life-cycle effects of educational mobility on income. We analyse income trajectories for all Danes born in 1960-1961, and we consider how the welfare state ma…
Lives on track? Long-term earnings returns to selective school placement in England and Denmark
We explore the influence of between-school ability placement at lower secondary education on earnings across the life course in England and Denmark. We go beyond the mid-career snapshot provided by previous studies by exploiting the availability of four decades worth of earnings data for individuals born in the mid-1950s. Members of this cohort who were judged to be among the most academically able attended grammar schools in England (19%) and ad…
Sources of change in the primary and secondary effects of social class origin on educational decisions
Aiming High and Missing the Mark? Educational Choice, Dropout Risk, and Achievement in Upper Secondary Education among Children of Immigrants in Denmark
Although children of immigrant origin in many European countries are observed to choose higher levels of education than native-origin peers at similar levels of academic performance, little is known about the outcomes of these high-aspiring choices. Using administrative register data covering all children born in 1994-1995 in Denmark, I examine whether the high-aspiring educational choices of children of immigrants convert into educational succes…
Education as a mediator of the association between origins and destinations
Aiming High and Missing the Mark? Educational Choice, Dropout Risk, and Achievement in Upper Secondary Education among Children of Immigrants in Denmark
Although children of immigrant origin in many European countries are observed to choose higher levels of education than native-origin peers at similar levels of academic performance, little is known about the outcomes of these high-aspiring choices. Using administrative register data covering all children born in 1994-1995 in Denmark, I examine whether the high-aspiring educational choices of children of immigrants convert into educational succes…
Educational tracking and social inequalities in long-term labor market outcomes
In this country-comparative study, we ask to what extent differentiation in secondary education accounts for the association between social origins and social destinations in adult age. We go beyond the widely applied formal definitions of educational tracking and particularly pay attention to country-specific approaches to educational differentiation. Our main expectation is that once we factor in these particularities, the degree to which educa…
Origins of attainment
We study the overlap in the overall impact of family background on two widely studied labour market outcomes by considering whether brother similarities in occupational status are rooted in the same underlying family characteristics that affect brother similarities in income. We extend previous research using sibling correlations as an omnibus measure of total family background impact on a given outcome by directly quantifying how brother correla…
Lives on track? Long-term earnings returns to selective school placement in England and Denmark
We explore the influence of between-school ability placement at lower secondary education on earnings across the life course in England and Denmark. We go beyond the mid-career snapshot provided by previous studies by exploiting the availability of four decades worth of earnings data for individuals born in the mid-1950s. Members of this cohort who were judged to be among the most academically able attended grammar schools in England (19%) and ad…
Education as a mediator of the association between origins and destinations
Family Background, Educational Qualifications, and Labour Market Attainment
Previous studies on how family background affects labour market outcomes among offspring with similar formal educational qualifications are limited either by the way in which they measure family background or by the detail level by which they measure educational attainment. To address these limitations, we develop a comprehensive approach based on sibling similarities in labour market outcomes. Applying the approach to high-quality register data …
No evidence of a major learning slide 14 months into the Covid-19 pandemic in Denmark
We study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s academic performance in Denmark 14 months into the pandemic using nationwide and exceptionally rich data on reading test scores and family background (N ≈ 200,000 per year). We find no evidence of a major learning loss. While pupils in grade 8 experienced a three percentile points loss in reading performance, pupils in grades 2 and 4 experienced a learning gain of about five percentile p…
Long-term labor market returns to upper secondary school track choice
Sources of change in the primary and secondary effects of social class origin on educational decisions
Economic returns to reproducing parents' field of study
Research on the influence of family background on college graduates' earnings has not considered the importance of the match between parents' and children's field of study. Using a novel design based on within-family comparisons, I examine long-term earnings returns to reproducing parents' field of study in Denmark. I find that individuals whose field of study matches that of a parent have earnings that are 2 percent higher than those of their si…
Life-Cycle Economic Returns to Educational Mobility in Denmark
Although most studies of the transition from school to work take a snapshot perspective in examining economic returns to education, such returns evolve over an individual's lifetime. We empirically test a theoretical formulation derived from the cumulative advantage mechanism about enduring life-cycle effects of educational mobility on income. We analyse income trajectories for all Danes born in 1960-1961, and we consider how the welfare state ma…
Education as a mediator of the association between origins and destinations
Sources of change in the primary and secondary effects of social class origin on educational decisions
Aiming High and Missing the Mark? Educational Choice, Dropout Risk, and Achievement in Upper Secondary Education among Children of Immigrants in Denmark
Although children of immigrant origin in many European countries are observed to choose higher levels of education than native-origin peers at similar levels of academic performance, little is known about the outcomes of these high-aspiring choices. Using administrative register data covering all children born in 1994-1995 in Denmark, I examine whether the high-aspiring educational choices of children of immigrants convert into educational succes…
Lives on track? Long-term earnings returns to selective school placement in England and Denmark
We explore the influence of between-school ability placement at lower secondary education on earnings across the life course in England and Denmark. We go beyond the mid-career snapshot provided by previous studies by exploiting the availability of four decades worth of earnings data for individuals born in the mid-1950s. Members of this cohort who were judged to be among the most academically able attended grammar schools in England (19%) and ad…
Educational Tracking and Personality Formation
Although educational stratification research finds that educational tracking differentiates the development of cognitive skills and academic achievement, little is known about its consequences for noncognitive traits. This paper presents a framework for understanding how track placement affects personality traits and empirically tests its implications using longitudinal survey data from Denmark. I find that enrollment in the vocational track in u…
No evidence of a major learning slide 14 months into the Covid-19 pandemic in Denmark
We study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s academic performance in Denmark 14 months into the pandemic using nationwide and exceptionally rich data on reading test scores and family background (N ≈ 200,000 per year). We find no evidence of a major learning loss. While pupils in grade 8 experienced a three percentile points loss in reading performance, pupils in grades 2 and 4 experienced a learning gain of about five percentile p…
Long-term labor market returns to upper secondary school track choice
Family Background, Educational Qualifications, and Labour Market Attainment
Previous studies on how family background affects labour market outcomes among offspring with similar formal educational qualifications are limited either by the way in which they measure family background or by the detail level by which they measure educational attainment. To address these limitations, we develop a comprehensive approach based on sibling similarities in labour market outcomes. Applying the approach to high-quality register data …
Life-Cycle Economic Returns to Educational Mobility in Denmark
Although most studies of the transition from school to work take a snapshot perspective in examining economic returns to education, such returns evolve over an individual's lifetime. We empirically test a theoretical formulation derived from the cumulative advantage mechanism about enduring life-cycle effects of educational mobility on income. We analyse income trajectories for all Danes born in 1960-1961, and we consider how the welfare state ma…
Educational tracking and social inequalities in long-term labor market outcomes
In this country-comparative study, we ask to what extent differentiation in secondary education accounts for the association between social origins and social destinations in adult age. We go beyond the widely applied formal definitions of educational tracking and particularly pay attention to country-specific approaches to educational differentiation. Our main expectation is that once we factor in these particularities, the degree to which educa…
Economic returns to reproducing parents' field of study
Research on the influence of family background on college graduates' earnings has not considered the importance of the match between parents' and children's field of study. Using a novel design based on within-family comparisons, I examine long-term earnings returns to reproducing parents' field of study in Denmark. I find that individuals whose field of study matches that of a parent have earnings that are 2 percent higher than those of their si…
Origins of attainment
We study the overlap in the overall impact of family background on two widely studied labour market outcomes by considering whether brother similarities in occupational status are rooted in the same underlying family characteristics that affect brother similarities in income. We extend previous research using sibling correlations as an omnibus measure of total family background impact on a given outcome by directly quantifying how brother correla…
Teacher Bias, Socioeconomic Inequality, and the Role of Academic Reputations
Prior research suggests teachers’ evaluations may be influenced by students’ socioeconomic background, yet most evidence comes from experimental settings that overlook biases arising in real student-teacher interactions. This article exploits a 2016 Danish reform that introduced external evaluation of a ninth-grade essay exam to examine whether teachers grade socioeconomically advantaged students more favorably than do external examiners. Using a…
Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Demographic economics (8 works) · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics (8 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Labour economics (4 works) · School Choice and Performance (4 works) · Earnings (3 works)