Abstract
The implications of maximally maintained inequality (MMI) and its alternative essentially maintained inequality (EMI) for inequality of educational opportunity within societies and over time in those societies are well-understood and frequently addressed in the literature. MMI and EMI may also have implications for cross-national differences. The ISSP “Social Inequality” module fielded 1999-2001 provides highly comparable data useful for assessing hypotheses about cross-national variation in inequality of educational opportunity. Patterns of inequality of educational opportunity in the ISSP data are consistent with MMI and EMI: the association between socioeconomic background and education falls as the proportion of the labor force with postsecondary education rises.
