Educational systems vary strongly between European countries. An important question is whether educational institutional characteristics such as tracking, standardization and vocational orientation influences the extent to which educational systems function in the way society may expect from it. In this panel four papers are presented that focus on cross-national variation in educational systems, and how this variation relates to labour market outcomes, inequality of opportunity, and civic engagement. Using a wide collection of different cross-nationally comparative data sources, including the PISA studies on school performance, civic education surveys, and the European Labour Force Surveys, hypotheses are tested on the influence of educational institutional characteristics on different forms of inequality.

The panel is built around a comparative research project run at the University of Amsterdam and Maastricht University. A discussant will be invited among the international advisory board members.