Study title

Full edition for scientific use. PUMA Surveys consist of separate modules designed and prepared by different principle investigators. Fieldwork was conducted by Statistics Austria. This PUMA Survey consists of three modules: MODULE 1 "Family Background and the Intrahousehold Distribution of Resources - Explaining Gender Differences in Education", MODULE 2 "Voting Systems and Democratic Satisfaction - An Experimental Study", MODUL 3 "Skala zur Messung autoritärer Einstellungen in Österreich". MODULE 1: Family Background and the Intrahousehold Distribution of Resources: Explaining Gender Differences in Education (Alyssa Schneebaum, Doris Oberdabernig) This research analyzes the role of family background in a person’s opportunities for later academic success. In particular, it studies the relationship between one’s own educational attainment and three other issues: the educational attainment of his or her parents; the academic environment at home while growing up; and the distribution of resources among siblings in a household. The first issue has been studied at great length in the international literature and is considered one of the critical components of “equality of opportunity.” If a descendant’s educational opportunities are very strongly determined by his or her parents’ academic achievements (or lack thereof), then a society is not providing equal opportunities. The second point -- the academic environment at home (typically proxied by data on the number of books at home while one was growing up) -- is certainly related to the first, but has never appeared in the literature for Austria. This research should fill that gap. The third point asks how a child’s chances of educational success are related to the presence of other children in the household while they were growing up (primarily their siblings). More specifically, which children are most likely to receive a family’s limited resources when there are multiple children in the household? How is a...