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This project studies what part of the strong correlation between parental and child education is due to parental education and what part is due to preexisting differences between these parents, for example in terms their abilities and psychological characteristics. We aim at providing more credible estimates of the effects of parental education on child education by using an instrumental variables approach. We use the number of siblings of the parent as an instrumental variable for whether a parent obtains a university degree. Among other things we hold constant grandparental occupational status and education. We also study the role of mediators between parental and child education, such as the role of family income, cultural capital or parental involvement in the child’s education.

Education is a double-edged sword in the stratification process. On the one hand, it is an instrument of social mobility, since through competence development individuals can enhance their social position. On the other hand, it contributes to the reproduction of social inequalities; in particular, through the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and skills, individuals of privileged background can maintain their dominant position in the class structure. Comparative studies have shown that whether one aspect prevails over the other depends to a large extent on the organizational structure of educational systems.

In this project, we develop an interdisciplinary reflection on the normative implications of empirical research on educational inequality. Which theories of justice underlie the empirical work on international comparative education carried out in sociology, educational science, economics and political science? The definitional and operationalization choices imply a distinction between some instances of educational inequalities that are considered as legitimate and some that, on the contrary, are “unfair” and call for a compensatory intervention from policy-making. To what extent are researchers explicit – or even conscious – of the normative implications of their analytical choices?

This project focuses on analytical approaches in order to use repeated international school assessments longitudinally. We examine the challenges connected to linking large scale assessment surveys on cognitive skills (e.g. PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS, PIAAC…), with the goal of identifying possible solutions.
Among the challenges are: issues related to comparing achievement measures over time (linking error), issues related to including missing levels of the education process (matching), issues related to missing measures of previous achievement (pooling, pseudo-panel) and others.

In this project, we investigate the growing exercise of authority by international institutions, both empirically and normatively. Presently, scepticism seems to grow towards the exercise of authority by international institutions. Several European states criticize the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for invading too far into formerly well accepted domains of national sovereignty. New conflicts are bound to arise once the EU has formally decided to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights. At the international level, states are disputing the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

Strong growth of policy related research institutes since the 1990s and growing, increasingly transnational networking of experts and think tanks provide key reasons for the research project. Which  constituencies (in analogy to membership logics in associations) determine these policy institutes and what are the (institutional) logics of influence that leave a strong mark on processes and evolving structures of the transnational think tank networks? Do we experience a new pluralism or do we confront new hierarchies? The contemporary discussion of “post-democratic” circumstances focused on the national polity suggesting less opportunities of democratic participation through traditional political actors (political parties, associations) and institutions (national parliaments).

Methods of preference aggregation have received a wealth of attention in the literature on voting behavior, yet, as compared to individual voters, similar processes within international organizations (IOs) have received relatively little attention even as states continue to delegate increasingly more decision-making to international institutions. The way in which international decisions are made and the methods used to aggregate state preferences can have significant consequences for international politics. Thus, this project considers how formal voting rules are selected in IOs and considers the variation in methods of preference aggregation.

This project examines the ability of small states to achieve favorable outcomes in negotiations in international institutions. The decision to participate in an international institution is voluntary, even for small states. Dominant theories suggest that powerful states join international organizations because they can control the design of these institutions and solidify their resources by doing so. If these institutions are not beneficial then these states cease to participate. However few theories question the wide participation of the "losers" of international organizational design—small states. Accordingly, I argue that under certain conditions small states are the primary beneficiaries of institutional design.

The Project for Documentation and Preparation of the German Life History Study (GLHS) at the WZB is entrusted with the tasks of documenting the final study of the GHLS on “Work, Home, and Family in the Mobile Society” (LV-Panel 71), documenting literature using GHLS data and backing up survey data and material. Further it aims to establish a website providing information on other research projects using GHLS data and relevant literature. It is also planned to create an overall information system which is based on the GHLS.

The project involved the departments Democracy and Democratization (Director: Wolfgang Merkel), Migration, Integration, Transnationalization (Director: Ruud Koopmans),