Study title

Full edition for scientific use. The connection between educational information, social background, achievement and the level of education achieved and the associated labour market outcomes of young people is undisputed, both, internationally and nationally, and both, in the educational policy debate and in the educational science debate. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of clear evidence at the interface level of the Austrian education system to enable a holistic view of all school and training selection processes up to the end of secondary education. The objective of this research project was to close these information deficits in the context of decisions on educational pathways by comprehensively identifying, quantifying and analysing relevant influencing criteria for school career decisions across the entire school sector for the first time. Recent approaches in education economics extend the original criteria of rational choice theory (e.g. identical rates of return from an investment in education for all population groups) by taking into account the social position of the individuals and by focusing on differences in educational returns. Accordingly, the actors systematically make different educational decisions primarily on the basis of their position in the social status system. The calculated costs and returns are to be seen in relation to the social position. In addition, it is taken into account that the actors (different from the pure rational choice theory) cannot be fully informed about the consequences of educational decisions with regard to the expected life income.