Malaysia’s preferential policies have reduced the educational attainment gap between ethnic groups. However, we know less about their effects on ethnic differences in academic achievement. With this point in mind, the overall goal of this study is to examine inter-ethnic differences in mathematics and science achievement based on the cohort of eighth grade (Form 2) Malaysian students who participated in the Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study Repeat Project (TIMMS-R). It sought to determine the extent to which theoretical propositions of the structural and cultural perspectives developed to explain achievement differences in the United States are applicable in Malaysia. Malaysia is an interesting setting for the purpose of the present study for three reasons. First, the interethnic differences in educational outcomes were historically linked to occupational structure and class-and ethnicity-based residential segregation during the Brisish colonial rule. Second, Malaysia is one of the few countries (i.e. Fiji, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Uganda, India, and New Zealand) that have strong public policies to rectify the historical ethnic inequalities in access to education. However, the difference between Malaysia and these countries seems to be in the relative status of the formerly disadvantaged ethnic group in question. Finally, as a new member of the New Industrialized Countries (NICs), Malaysia is in the process of making the transition from an agricultural economy to an indutrialized nation. As such, the importance of mathematics and science education increases along with socioeconomic and technological advance and the discrepancies in mathematics and science achievement can have important implications on socioeconomic disparity among ethnic groups. The primary contribution of this dissertation is that it holistically examines how individual, family and school characteristics affect mathematics and science achievement of the eighth graders in Malaysia. The multilevel modeling analyses showed that Non-Malay students performed significantly better in mathematics achievement than Malay students, even after controlling for family and school characteristics as well as students’ perceived importance of mathematics and educational expectations. Overall, the results suggest that the structural and cultural perspectives work differently for Malay and Non-Malay students.

The case of late Qing China is of great importance to theories of economic development. This study examines the question of why China¡¯s industrialization was slow between 1865 and 1895 as compared to contemporary Japan¡¯s. Industrialization is measured on four dimensions: sea transport, railway, communications, and the cotton textile industry. I trace the difference between China¡¯s and Japan¡¯s industrialization to government leadership, which includes three aspects: direct governmental investment, government policies at the macro-level, and specific measures and actions to assist selected companies and industries. Compared to the Meiji government, the Chinese government¡¯s role in all of the three aspects was insufficient. Furthermore, I explore why the Chinese government did not lead China¡¯s economic development efficiently. The Manchu question¡ªManchu rule of Qing China and Manchu supremacy over other ethnic groups¡ªtriggered ethnic rebellions between the early 1850s and the early 1870s, which severely undermined the government in economic, political, and military terms. Ethnic rebellions in turn were caused by the government¡¯s unequal ethnic policies that had established an ethnic hierarchy in the empire. Moreover, the government spent a disproportionate amount of funds on the Manchu stipend to financially support the group compared to the government¡¯s investment in modern industries. The Manchu question surfaced after 1895 in the sense that pro-dynastic reforms attempted to deal with it. The 1911 Revolution eventually brought the Manchu question to an end.

<p>In 2010, approximately 84% of the American population lives in a metropolitan area. Different metropolitan areas are characterized by distinct labor markets and economies, housing markets and residential patterns, socioeconomic and demographic factors, and according to some, even distinct 'spirits.' The nature and influence of such structural factors lie at the heart of urban sociology, and have particularly profound effects on patterns of racial and ethnic stratification. This dissertation examines new urban structural changes arising within recent decades, and their implications for racial/ethnic stratification. Specifically, I study the transition to the 'new economy' and racial/ethnic wage inequality; increases in the level and inequality of housing prices and racial/ethnic stratification in homeownership; and increased income inequality, combined with population aging, and racial/ethnic disparities in disability and poor health. I measure metropolitan-level structural factors and racial/ethnic inequalities with data from 5% samples of the 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses; the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS); and the 1999-2001 and 2009-2011 Current Population Surveys (CPS). Cross-sectional multilevel regression models examine the spatial distributions of structural factors and racial/ethnic inequality, and the fixed-effects regression models identify the impact of changes in structural factors over time on observed trends in racial stratification. Additionally, I distinguish between effects on minority-white gaps in resource access, and minorities' levels of resource access. This dissertation also makes novel contributions to the field by empirically documenting complex patterns of inequalities among the country's four largest racial and ethnic groups. Perhaps most relevant to theories of racial stratification, this dissertation demonstrates seemingly race-neutral structural changes can have racially stratified effects. </p><p>Chapter 1 describes the foundational literature in urban sociology and racial/ethnic stratification, and provides an overview of the subsequent chapters. Chapter 2 measures the transition to the `new economy' with six structural factors of labor markets: skill-biased technological change, financialization, the rise of the creative class, employment casualization, immigration, and deunionization. Overall, the results indicate the observed Latino-white wage gap may be up to 40% larger in 2010 than in the theoretical absence of the new economy, and the black-white wage gap may be up to 31% larger. Chapter 3 focuses on the long-term trend toward higher and more unequally distributed home prices within local housing markets, epitomized by the housing crisis of the late 2000s. Increases in housing market inequality worsen the Asian-white homeownership gap, but narrow the black-white and Latino-white gaps. However, the level of homeownership is reduced for all groups. Chapter 4 empirically tests the frequently-debated Income Inequality Hypothesis, that macro-level income inequality undermines population health, and hypothesizes any negative effect on health is stronger in areas with greater population aging. The results provide no support for the Income Inequality Hypothesis or any of its proposed extensions, but the chapter's analytic approach may be fruitfully applied to future examinations of structural determinants of health. The theoretical and substantive conclusion of the dissertation is that metropolitan areas represent salient, and changing structural contexts that significantly shape patterns racial/ethnic stratification in America.</p> / Dissertation

According to the 2003 National Household Survey, mean labour income for an indigenous worker is only 56% of that for a non-indigenous worker. Studies of ethnic discrimination in Peru’s labour markets generally find that discrimination is too low to explain inequalities of this magnitude. However, Sigma Theory (Figueroa 2003) predicts that social exclusion is a source of inter-ethnic inequality, and that has not been empirically tested. The primary aim of this paper is to fill this gap by estimating the extent to which exclusion and discrimination contribute to income inequality. Hurdle models are used to tackle down econometric endogeneity of years of schooling and truncation-at-zero of incomes. The results imply that exclusion plays a stronger role on inequality than discrimination: without exclusion, the Gini of labour income would decrease from 0.64 to 0.45, and without discrimination it would be reduced to 0.50. / De acuerdo a la Enaho 2003, el ingreso promedio de un trabajador indígena es solo 56% del de un trabajador no-indígena. Sin embargo, estudios sobre discriminación étnica en los mercados laborales de Perú usualmente hallan brechas demasiado pequeñas como para explicar la desigualdad observada. De acuerdo a Figueroa (2003), la exclusión social es una fuente importante de desigualdad interétnica, pero esto no ha sido contrastado empíricamente. El objetivo central de este documento es llenar esa brecha estimando qué porcentaje de la desigualdad se debe a exclusión y qué porcentaje a discriminación, comparando directamente los efectos. La metodología econométrica utilizada (hurdle models) permite incluir en el análisis a los trabajadores con ingresos nulos y contrarrestar problemas de endogeneidad econométrica. Los resultados implican que la exclusión juega un papel más importante que la discriminación. Sin exclusión, el Gini de ingresos laborales se reduciría de 0.64 a cerca de 0.45; sin discriminación, a alrededor de 0.50.

This thesis consists of four self-contained essays in the sociology of educational stratification. Study I draws on newly collected survey data to assess the biases that arise in estimating socioeconomic differences in achievement when relying on parent and student reported data on social background. The main finding is that student reports on parental occupation overcome both the problem of misreporting that plagues other data collected from children, and the equally damaging problem of selective nonresponse among parents. Conditional estimates of ethnic disparities are relatively unaffected by these issues. Study II deals with student survey reports on the number of books in the home. A prominent string of authors has favoured this variable as a social background proxy over parental occupation or education based on its strong associations with educational outcomes. The paper applies various methods to large-scale student assessment data to show that these associations rest not on higher reliability as commonly assumed, but rather on two types of endogeneity. Low achievers accumulate less books and are also prone to underestimate their number. Study III uses survey and register data to study immigrant parents' education and its associations with children's achievement in recent Swedish cohorts. Two aspects of parental education are distinguished: the absolute years of schooling and a relative place in the source country's educational distribution. Parents' absolute education turns out to predict children's test scores and grades, whereas relative education is a better predictor of their educational aspirations. The result is of some consequence for studies seeking to assess ethnic disparities net of observed parental characteristics. Study IV extends the positional approach of Study III to understand immigrants' self-perceived social status and income satisfaction in European countries. Those higher educated by origin country than host country standards make more dismal assessments of their current situation than do other immigrants in otherwise similar circumstances. This is attributed to a social contrast mechanism and argued to be of relevance in understanding longer-term patterns of social and economic integration, including educational decisions made by the second generation. / Avhandlingen består av fyra fristående studier som alla berör utbildning och social stratifiering. Studie I undersöker med nyinsamlade enkätdata hur sociala skillnader i skolprestation riskerar att felskattas med bakgrundsuppgifter inhämtade från föräldrar respektive elever. Den viktigaste slutsatsen är att elevuppgifter om föräldrars yrke undviker mycket av den felrapportering som behäftar andra elevsvar, liksom det utbredda problemet med selektivt bortfall bland föräldrar. Villkorliga skattningar av etniska skillnader är relativt opåverkade av dessa metodproblem. Studie II granskar elevers uppgifter om antalet böcker i hemmet. En betydande litteratur har förespråkat denna variabel som ett mått på klasstillhörighet framför föräldrars yrke eller utbildning på grundval av starka samband med elevers studieresultat. Uppsatsen tillämpar en rad metoder på data från en internationell kunskapsutvärdering och finner att sambandens styrka inte vilar på högre tillförlitlighet som tidigare förmodats, utan på endogenitetsproblem av två slag. Lågpresterande elever ackumulerar färre böcker och är dessutom benägna att underskatta deras antal. Studie III använder enkät- och registerdata för att belysa utlandsfödda föräldrars utbildning och dess samband med prestationer bland svenska skolbarn. Två aspekter av utbildningsbakgrund särskiljs: föräldrars utbildningsår samt deras relativa placering i ursprungslandets fördelning. Absolut utbildning visar sig predicera elevers testresultat och betyg, medan relativ utbildning är en bättre prediktor för barns aspirationer. Resultatet är av betydelse för studier av etniska skillnader där statistisk kontroll görs för observerbara föräldraegenskaper. Studie IV tillämpar den positionella ansatsen från Studie III för att förstå utlandsföddas självupplevda status och inkomsttillfredsställelse i europeiska länder. Migranter som är mer högutbildade med ursprungslandets mått mätt än värdlandets tenderar att ha en mer negativ bild av sin nuvarande situation än andra i objektivt liknande omständigheter. Detta kan förstås i termer av sociala referensramar och framhålls som relevant i tolkningen av långsiktiga sociala och ekonomiska integrationsmönster, inklusive de utbildningsval som efterföljande generationer gör. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>