PhD defence Quoc Khanh Duong

Keywords: Intergenerational mobility, Equality of opportunity, Familial relationship goods, Behavioural genetics

"The Role of Family Relationships in Intergenerational Inequality in Education"

The apple does not fall far from the tree.’ This proverb captures the intergenerational persistence of educational attainment—one of the most durable findings in mobility research. Yet this persistence remains contested: does it reflect remediable social disadvantage, or inevitable (even valuable) familial processes? This contestation raises a deeper question: What makes a family a family? Not genes, money, or power—but the intimate practices that enable human flourishing. The same practices, however, transmit advantage across generations, thus challenging meritocratic ideals of equal opportunity. To address this challenge, the present study asks: How can a society committed to equality of opportunity accommodate the advantages arising from family life? Drawing on the concept of Familial Relationship Goods (FRGs), the dissertation develops a closed-form correction for gene–environment interplay biases. It then applies this correction to a synthesis of twin, adoption, and biological estimates. Our corrected estimate of the FRG transmission effect is approximately 0.15—the ineradicable price of preserving the family. The aim is not to cut down the apple tree, but to make the ground more level.

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