Educational Credentialism and Elite Formation in Japan: A Long-term Perspective

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K03504
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Public finance/Public economy
• Research Institution: Hitotsubashi University
• Principal Investigator: Hiroshi Ono 一橋大学, 大学院国際企業戦略研究科, 教授 (80747981)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KAWAGUCHI Daiji 東京大学, 大学院経済研究科, 教授 (80346139)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 学歴主義 / エリート形成 / 人的資本 / シグナリング / 役員輩出率

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Educational credentials play a critical role in elite formation in Japan. Entering a prestigious firm and advancing to executive positions assume graduation from an elite university.
In this project, we conduct econometric analyses to examine the extent to which “educational credentialism” has strengthened or weakened over time. Specifically, we use microdata of executives from 1991 to 2016 with over 1 million observations to estimate the role of educational credentials in producing corporate executives.
Our results show that the probability of elite universities’ producing corporate executives has declined over time, suggesting that role of educational credentials in producing elites has weakened over time. Our findings suggest that social mobility and status attainment in Japanese society is shifting from credentialism to meritocracy.

Free Research Field

労働経済学