L'EFFETTO DIRETTO DELLE ORIGINI SOCIALI SULLA DESTINAZIONE OCCUPAZIONALE IN PROSPETTIVA COMPARATA

Abstract

The direct effect of social origin on occupational destination in comparative perspective Research on social stratification has extensively studied the association between parental status and children’s occupational achievement (intergenerational mobility), as well as the association between parental status and children’s educational achievement (inequality of educational opportunities), which appears to be a substantial part of the former association. In comparison, less work has been devoted to the study the direct effect of social origin (DESO) on occupational outcomes, that is the association between family background and occupational attainment which remains to be observed when education is controlled for (OD|E). This dissertation includes 4 main sections. First of all, it outlines with an historical approach the main contributions of the literature and the main methodological paradigms concerning the relationship between social origin, education and destination. This chapter reports the major contributions in social mobility, social stratification studies and recent developments in the fields. Secondly, this work investigates the existence of the DESO using fully comparable data including all European countries (EU-Silc 2005 and 2011 and ESS 2002-2014). It also looks at the variation of the DESO depending on individual’s education. A relevant feature of the study is that it explores whether the effect of social origin on social destination changes when different measures of occupational achievement are considered. The use of different measures of occupational outcomes is not just a robustness check, but has also a theoretical relevance, enabling us to explore the different patterns of the intergenerational transmission of different dimensions of inequality. The study compares the empirical evidence between females and males, in order to observe the gender variation of the DESO in the European context and to compare country clusters. The third and the fourth sections deal with one of the mechanisms by which the DESO works, that is the differences in productivity related to the family of origin. It looks in two different ways to the competences required for an occupational career, including both cognitive and non-cognitive competences. The third chapter shows a common competence structure in 21 countries, and its relationships with the different dimensions of the DESO. The fourth chapter analyzes the direct effect of social origin on cognitive competences, showing how it varies as a function of changing educational institutions in Western countries. The third chapter considers the literature which has shown that competencies are positively associated with social origin, education and occupational status (Bowles & Gintis, 1979; Heckman et.al. 2006; 2013; Brunello & Schlotter, 2011; Barone & Van de Werfhorst, 2011). Moreover, the modernization process, after three industrial revolutions and the increase of technology, changes the set of competences needed in education and in the labor market, similarly…