The Tension between Money and Culture: Inequality, Economic Capital, Cultural Capital, and High School Students’ Educational Achievements from a Comparative Perspective

This study investigated how income inequality shapes the role of economic and cultural capital in students’ academic performance. By analyzing a multilevel dataset of 72 countries (economies), we found that (1) the associations between economic capital and academic achievements are stronger in unequal societies than in equal ones, whereas the associations between cultural capital and students’ achievements are stronger in equal societies than in unequal ones, and (2) in more equal societies, the associations between cultural capital and students’ achievements are stronger for students with lower economic capital, whereas the associations between cultural capital and students’ achievements are stronger for students with higher stocks of economic capital in unequal societies. The findings contribute to understanding how social context shapes the processes of intergenerational reproduction from a comparative perspective.