Occupational Choice Across Generations

European Sociological Review

What happens in the occupational careers of men if the intergenerational continuity in status reproduction is disrupted by the failure to reproduce the parental level of educational attainment? We frame this failure as a risk for intergenerational status maintenance and ask whether such a risk induces extra effort by way of compensation. By studying eight birth cohorts born between 1919 and 1971 characterized by largely differing conditions with regard to educational and occupational opportunities, we examine how macro-social conditions contribute to opportunities to compensate for such failure later on. In examining this question, we add a new piece to the puzzle of how social origin and education contribute to status attainment and of how the social context shapes these linkages across historical time. We estimated multilevel growth curve models to assess the effect of educational downward mobility on the development of occupational status over the career. Our empirical results show that the status of men who experience educational downward mobility increases faster over the course of their careers. Moreover, these men reach a slightly higher status as compared to their peers who had reached at least the same educational level as their fathers. The prevailing macro-societal conditions did not cause variation in the effect of educational downward mobility on men's career attainment.

European Sociological Review, 1998

Status attainment in the Netherlands is analysed using both linear regression and multinomial logistic (MNL) regression for male labour-market cohorts between 1920 and 1990. The quasi row and columns 2 mobility model is included in the MNL model, and a stereotyped ordered regression model is used for the covariates. The regression analyses indicate that the effect of father's occupation becomes weaker for later entrants into the labour market and as work experience accumulates. The impact of education is not affected by entry year but only by work experience. The MNL models largely confirm the results of the regression analysis, but show that the weakening impact of father's occupation by entry year and experience is not due to an increased flow between occupational classes, but only to a reduced propensity to immobility.

Gender Differences in German Upward Income Mobility * We examine the upward labor income mobility of men and women in Germany using the GSOEP Cross National Equivalent File. Women have greater overall income mobility. However, utilizing a measure of upward income mobility and calculating the posterior probability that men's upward income mobility is greater than women's, we find that men have overall greater upward income mobility. Women have greater upward mobility in the lower initial income classes, in the upper initial income brackets men's mobility is higher than women's.

2017

This study analyses how the long-term modernisation process as well as ups and downs of business cycles affect the entry of men into the labour market in West Germany and their career mobility. Combining longitudinal data from the German Life History Study and the ALWA study, we first reconstructed men's job histories continuously for the period between 1945 and 2008. As a measure of men's 'goodness of jobs' at entry into the labour market and across the job career, the magnitude prestige scale (MPS), has been employed. Then, we used the time series data obtained from official statistics to perform factor analysis and suggest a more substantially grounded approach than the conventional approach to the analysis of age (A), period (P) and cohort (C) effects. In particular, we assessed how the modernisation process and continuously changing labour market conditions affect men's entry into the labour market across successive cohorts. Based on their further occupational careers, we used a multi-level event-history model to study how placements in first jobs (cohort effect) and the continuously changing macro structure (period effect) influence men's upward, lateral, and downward career mobility, controlling for men's individual-level resources, such as educational attainment and changing labour force experience (life-course or age effect). This fully dynamic

Journal for Labour Market Research

This study analyses how the long-term modernisation process as well as ups and downs of business cycles affect the entry of men into the labour market in West Germany and their career mobility. Combining longitudinal data from the German Life History Study and the ALWA study, we first reconstructed men's job histories continuously for the period between 1945 and 2008. As a measure of men's 'goodness of jobs' at entry into the labour market and across the job career, the magnitude prestige scale (MPS), has been employed. Then, we used the time series data obtained from official statistics to perform factor analysis and suggest a more substantially grounded approach than the conventional approach to the analysis of age (A), period (P) and cohort (C) effects. In particular, we assessed how the modernisation process and continuously changing labour market conditions affect men's entry into the labour market across successive cohorts. Based on their further occupational careers, we used a multi-level event-history model to study how placements in first jobs (cohort effect) and the continuously changing macro structure (period effect) influence men's upward, lateral, and downward career mobility, controlling for men's individual-level resources, such as educational attainment and changing labour force experience (life-course or age effect). This fully dynamic

Journal of The Royal Statistical Society Series A-statistics in Society, 2003

This paper brings together the virtues of linear regression models for status attainment models formulated by second-generation social mobility researchers and the strengths of log-linear models formulated by third-generation researchers, into fourth-generation social mobility models, by using conditional multinomial logistic regression (CMLR). These CMLR models are capable of capturing the discrete and multidimensional nature of social mobility patterns (a characteristic of third-generation output) while reducing the number of parameters leading to parsimonious models (a characteristic of second-generation output). Using data from eight pooled surveys in the Netherlands, an extended Blau-Duncan status attainment model is formulated and analysed.The corresponding CMLR model is formulated incorporating general and specific inheritance effects. The final CMLR model gives a relatively parsimonious description of Dutch mobility patterns, similar to the extended Blau-Duncan model, at the same time offering the possibility of including specific effects where necessary. Effects of gender and education appear to be too complex to be captured by a single parameter.

2008

The German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) with its 23 waves and an enormous oversample of migrants offers a unique opportunity to observe long-term processes in Germany. This paper focuses on one such case, the labour market integration of ethnic minorities – i.e. the question if “comparable groups of workers […] enjoy comparable opportunities and outcomes” (Bohning 1995: 2). We first briefly elaborate on the question which groups can be regarded as comparable and which characteristics should be taken into account for a comparison of ethnic groups. Investigating unemployment patterns among young school leavers from different ethnic backgrounds, the transition does not only include classical unemployment durations but also transition periods with small jobs, etc. The so-constructed spells are analysed with (non-)proportional Cox models. In doing so, the study points out relevant factors for smoothing the transition to the first job. Segregation, human capital and social reproduction se...

This paper brings together the virtues of linear regression models for status attainment models formulated by second-generation social mobility researchers and the strengths of log-linear models formulated by third-generation researchers, into fourth-generation social mobility models, by using conditional multinomial logistic regression (CMLR). These CMLR models are capable of capturing the discrete and multidimensional nature of social mobility patterns (a characteristic of third-generation output) while reducing the number of parameters leading to parsimonious models (a characteristic of second-generation output). Using data from eight pooled surveys in the Netherlands, an extended Blau-Duncan status attainment model is formulated and analysed.The corresponding CMLR model is formulated incorporating general and specific inheritance effects. The final CMLR model gives a relatively parsimonious description of Dutch mobility patterns, similar to the extended Blau-Duncan model, at the same time offering the possibility of including specific effects where necessary. Effects of gender and education appear to be too complex to be captured by a single parameter.

Journal of Population Economics, 2003

In this paper we examine the process of out-migration and investigate whether cross-sectional earnings assimilation results suffer from selection bias due to out-migration. Our 14 year longitudinal study reveals that emigrants are negatively selected with respect to occupational prestige and to stable full time employment. Our results show no selectivity with respect to human capital or gender. The likelihood of

Social Indicators Research

Using data from the German socio-economic panel, this paper provides new evidence on intergenerational mobility in Germany by focusing on intergenerational association in ranks—i.e. positions, which parents and children occupy in their respective income distributions. We find that the association of children’s ranks with ranks of their fathers is about 0.242 for individual labor earnings and it is higher for sons than for daughters. It is also higher in East Germany compared to West Germany. The results further show that rank-based measures of mobility are less sensitive than conventional measures of intergenerational income elasticity to different methodological and sample specification choices, such as the stages of the life cycle when incomes of children and parents are measured, the number of years for which incomes are considered, the treatment of zero values in income variables and the choice of annual versus hourly earnings. Moreover, they are more robust for sub-group compar...