Who gained from the introduction of free universal secondary education in England and Wales?
研究1944年英格兰和威尔士免费普及中等教育政策的效果，发现来自贫困家庭的孩子进入重点中学和获得学历的机会并未显著改善，仅非熟练工人家庭的男孩在学历上可能有例外。
This paper investigates the introduction of free universal secondary education in England and Wales in 1944. It focuses on its effects in relation to a prime long-term goal of pre-war Boards of Education. This was to open secondary school education to children of all social backgrounds on equal terms. Adopting a difference-in-difference estimation approach, we do not find any evidence that boys and girls from less well-off home backgrounds displayed improved chances of attending selective secondary schools. Nor, for the most part, did they show increased probabilities of gaining formal school qualifications. One possible exception in this latter respect relates to boys with unskilled fathers.