Dr Bastian Betthäuser

Bastian Betthäuser is an Assistant Professor at the Observatoire Sociologique du Changement (OSC), Sciences Po. He is an Associate Member of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford.

Bastian’s research examines education and labour market policy and its implications for social inequality from a life-course and intergenerational perspective. His work focuses on the relationship between equality of opportunity and equality of condition in society using quasi-experimental research designs. Bastian is particularly interested in the effects of institutional and structural changes on the social mobility chances of disadvantaged youth. His research also examines the micro-level mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of inequality, focussing on the role of individual-level characteristics such as cognitive and non-cognitive attributes.

Bastian’s work has been published in leading journals in sociology and public policy, including the European Sociological Review, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Advances in Life Course Research and the European Journal of Social Security. His research has been funded by grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Nuffield Foundation and the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme.

Bastian co-convenes the Social Inequality Research Group at DSPI. He has taught the module on Education Policy for the MSc in Comparative Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI), the module on Social Policy in the 21st Century for the MPP programme in Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG), and quantitative research methods at DSPI. He has also developed an online course on Social Policy and Welfare States in the Twenty-first Century for the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE).

Research

Projects
-> Social mobility of disadvantaged youth in Germany (ESRC)
-> Social origins, cognitive ability and educational attainment in Britain (Nuffield Foundation, with Erzsébet Bukodi & John Goldthorpe)
-> Youth unemployment and social participation in Europe (European Commission, FP7, with Jacqueline O'Reilly)

Selected publications

Betthäuser, B. A. (2019). Left behind? Over-time change in the social mobility of children from unskilled working-class backgrounds in Germany. Acta Sociologica. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699319868524

Betthäuser, B. A. (2019). The Effect of the Post-Socialist Transition on Inequality of Educational Opportunity: Evidence from German Unification, European Sociological Review, Volume 35, Issue 4, August 2019, Pages 461–473, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcz012

Betthäuser, B. (2017) "Fostering equality of opportunity? Compulsory schooling reform and social mobility in Germany", European Sociological Review  . doi: 10.1093/esr/jcx066. Download

Betthäuser, B. (2017) "Protecting outsiders? Corporatism and the dualization of unemployment protection in Germany and Austria", European Journal of Social Security  . doi: 10.1177/1388262717724892. Download

Bukodi, E., M. Bourne and B. Betthäuser (2017) "Wastage of Talent? Social Origins, Cognitive Ability and Educational Attainment in Britain", Advances in Life Course Research  

Bourne, M., E. Bukodi, B. Betthäuser and J. H. Goldthorpe (2017) "‘Persistence of the social’: The role of cognitive ability in mediating the effects of social origins on educational attainment in Britain", (currently under review)  

Betthäuser, B. (2016) "Left behind? Over-time change in the social mobility of the most disadvantaged youth in Germany", (currently under review)  

Betthäuser, B. and M. Bourne (2016) "Harmonizing the measurement of social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in four British population surveys: NCDS, BCS70, LSYPE and ALSPAC.", SOCED Project Data Note 2016-10-11. Download

Arrigoni, A., B. Betthäuser, E. Chase, E. Ferragina, M. Seeleib-Kaiser, T. Spreckelsen (2016) "Young People as Outsiders: Prevalence, composition and participation", Report prepared for the European Union. Download

Betthäuser, B. (2016) "The Oxford Dataset on Social Inequality in Germany (OxGer): Harmonizing and combining information on social origin, educational attainment and social destination in the NEPS, SOEP and GLHS", SOCED Project Data Note 2016-09-21  

Betthäuser, B. and M. Bourne (2016) "Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the British Birth Cohort Study (BCS70).", SOCED Project Data Note 2016-10-04. Download

Betthäuser, B. and M. Bourne (2016) "Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the National Child Development Study (NCDS).", SOCED Project Data Note 2016-08-09. Download

Bourne, M. and Betthäuser, B. (2016) "Measuring social origin, cognitive ability and educational attainment in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE).", SOCED Project Data Note 2016-06-03. Download

Betthäuser, B. (2016) "Measuring social origin, educational attainment and social destination in the National Education Panel Study (NEPS)", SOCED Project Data Note 2016-08-28  

Betthäuser, B. (2016) "Measuring social origin, educational attainment and social destination in the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP)", SOCED Project Data Note 2016-06-15  

Betthäuser, B. (2016) "Measuring social origin, educational attainment and social destination in the German Life-History Study (GLHS)", SOCED Project Data Note 2016-04-01  

Other Outputs

BSG Lecture: Social mobility and Education Policy. Betthaeuser, B. (2016). This lecture gives an introduction to the concept and measurement of intergenerational social mobility. It further discusses some existing evidence on whether and how intergenerational social mobility can be increased via education policy. It was held as part of the course on 'Social Policy in the 21st Century' for the Masters of Public Policy (MPP) at the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG) View Online