Direct Effect Of Social Origins Research Articles

Social origin and women’s occupational careers. The role of parenthood in shaping social inequality among Italian women

This paper studies in longitudinal perspective the direct effect of social origin (DESO) on the careers of women in Italy, focusing on the role of motherhood in shaping the DESO and its pattern over the life course. Career outcomes are seen in terms of employment interruptions and of occupational status. First, the paper analyzes when the DESO appears, and how it evolves over the occupational career and the life course. Second, it investigates whether and how motherhood shapes the magnitude and trend over the career of the DESO. Results, based on growth curve models, show that the DESO in occupational status already appears at first job, and then slightly changes over the life course, whereas the social origin gap in the probability of career breaks is small in the first years after labour market entry and then increases. Parenthood does not help to explain the DESO because women from low social origin are more likely to have children than women from high social origin. Rather, it contributes to the increase of the DESO over the life course because of different career trajectories after motherhood, with higher risks to leave employment among women from the lower classes and (slightly) higher occupational premia among women from the service class.

Where DESO Disappears: Spatial Inequality and Social Stratification at Labour Market Entry

Abstract At country-level, a host of evidence suggests there is a sizeable direct effect of social origin (DESO) on initial labour market outcomes, net of educational attainment. What is true at country-level is not always true below country-level, however. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel, we show that variable spatial opportunity structures moderate the size of DESO at labour market entry, such that there are places where DESO disappears. Social origins assume greater importance as local labour market conditions deteriorate: in weak local labour markets, non-graduates are approximately 16 percentage points less likely to find employment if their parents are care workers rather than secondary school teachers, while graduates typically obtain first jobs that are 7–9 ISEI points lower in status. These findings highlight the distinctive geography of social stratification processes at labour market entry and potentially beyond.

Labour market prospects of young adults in Europe: differential effects of social origin during the Great Recession

ABSTRACT Research on the direct effect of social origin (DESO) focuses on how background influences later labour market outcomes after accounting for education. Growing up in a household of low social origin might decrease the chances of certain future outcomes; however, the extent to which this matters is contingent on the economic cycle. Using the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and the European Social Survey (ESS) between 2002 and 2014, we analyse whether the gap in the DESO in terms of employment and earnings widened following the Great Recession for young adults (25-34) in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. Our results suggest that young adults of high social origin faced more disadvantages in terms of employment than young adults of low social origin in France, Spain and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, analyses show that young adults of low social origin experienced more disadvantages in terms of earnings than their counterparts of high social origin in Spain.

Like parents, like children. Does the stratification of education systems moderate the direct effect of origins on destinations?

ABSTRACT This article aims to identify the moderating effect of the stratification of education systems (especially the extent to which the first selection is based on student ability) on the association between social origins and destinations, while holding the effect of education constant. Two hypotheses are formulated. The first hypothesis expects a negative moderating effect of the stratification of education systems on the direct effect of origins on destinations, while the null hypothesis argues for no moderating effect. Individual-level data from the European Social Survey (round 1–5) are complemented with new contextual indicators measuring various education system characteristics. Apart from employing these new indicators, another contribution of this article is the use of a more comprehensive measurement of social origins, simultaneously accounting for social class and parental education. Findings show that the direct effect of social origins on occupational attainment is not moderated by the extent to which the first selection is based on student ability. The null effect holds against several robustness checks employing different measurements, sample selections and model specifications.

The Social-Origins Gap in Labour Market Outcomes: Compensatory and Boosting Advantages Using a Micro-Class Approach

AbstractRecent studies document a social-origins gap or direct effect of social origin (DESO) on labour market outcomes over and above respondents’ education, challenging the idea that post-industrial societies are education-based meritocracies. Yet, the literature offers insufficient explanations on DESO heterogeneity across education and different labour market outcomes. Little is also known about underlying mechanisms. We contribute by answering two questions: (i) How does DESO vary when comparing college-degree holders with non-holders? (ii) For which specific parental and children’s occupations is the largest DESO observed? We focus on Spain, using a large new dataset (n = 144,286). Firstly, we find a larger DESO on socioeconomic status among non-degree holders, and on income among degree holders. We propose the notions of compensatory advantage in occupational attainment and boosting advantage in income for high social-origin individuals to explain these opposite patterns, drawing from ‘downward mobility avoidance’ and ‘effectively maintained inequality’ theories. Secondly, we map origin and destination micro-classes where DESO is largest. High-grade managerial and professional parental occupations, characterized by social closure and influence in large organizations, are the origin micro-classes exerting the largest DESO. We also find that compensatory advantage for low-educated children from advantaged origins is related to their higher chances of accessing managerial occupations, while boosting advantage on income among college graduates is observed for high-grade managers and liberal professionals, suggesting that micro-class reproduction may partially account for boosting advantage. We conclude by discussing the generalizability of our findings to other countries and their implications for research on DESO, meritocracy and social mobility.

Social origin and compensation patterns over the occupational career in Italy

This paper studies dynamically the direct effect of social origin on occupational destinations among men in Italy over the career. It aims at investigating the existence, the pattern over time and the heterogeneity of differences in occupational achievement related to social origins, net of education (DESO) and occupational allocation at first job. It also analyses if the change of the DESO over the career is related to the effect of specific job change episodes (voluntary job change, involuntary job change, internal career move). Results based on growth curve models show the relevance of first job in shaping the DESO, which also slightly increases over the career. The DESO is stronger among highly educated individuals, confirming a boosting pattern primarily driven by a better allocation at first job. The (smaller) DESO among the low-educated, increasing over the career, depends from the higher probabilities to benefit from voluntary and internal career job changes for the children of the service class. The (stronger) DESO among the highly educated is driven by the higher probabilities of experiencing internal career mobility for the children of the service class as well as by their ability to benefit also from an involuntary job change (e.g. dismissal).

Social origin, field of study and graduates' career progression: does social inequality vary across fields?

Research on stratification and mobility has consistently shown that in the UK there is a direct impact of social origin on occupational destination net of educational attainment even for degree‐holders. However, only a few studies applied a longitudinal and dynamic perspective on how intergenerational mobility shapes graduates’ working careers. Using multilevel growth curve modelling and data from the 1970 British cohort study (BCS70), we contribute to this research by looking at the emergence of social inequalities during the first ten years since labour market entry. We further distinguish between graduates of different fields of study as we expect social disparities to develop differently due to differences in initial occupational placement and upward mobility processes. We find that parental class does not affect occupational prestige over and above prior achievement. Separate analyses by the field of study show that initial differences in occupational prestige and career progression do not differ between graduates from different classes of origin in STEM fields, and arts and humanities. It is only in the social sciences that working‐class graduates start with lower occupational prestige but soon catch up with their peers from higher classes. Overall, our results indicate no direct effect of social origin on occupational attainment for degree‐holders once we broaden our focus to a dynamic life course perspective.

The direct effect of social origin on men’s occupational attainment over the early life course: An Italian–Dutch comparison

The article examines the direct effect of social origin on occupational attainment over the early life course of Italian and Dutch men in the period 1946–2005. Based on cross-country and cross-cohort comparisons, we explore the role of the context in favouring the direct transmission of social advantages. Early employment careers are reconstructed using the ‘Italian Longitudinal Household Panel Study’ and the ‘Family Survey Dutch Population’. Multilevel growth curve analyses are used to understand whether the direct effect of social origin at labour market entry increases, decreases or remains stable over the first 10 years of occupational career. Empirical results show that, in both countries, the direct social origin effect is stable over historical and biographical time. Independently of structural and institutional conditions influencing the extent of career mobility, offspring hailing from advantaged social background enjoy a better occupational position at labour market entry, while experiencing similar rates of career progression compared to their counterparts from less-advantaged families. However, when entering the labour market in the same occupational position, offspring from the service class enjoy higher rates of progression compared to their working-class counterparts. Taken together, these pieces of evidence imply that the direct social origin effect would decrease over the early career without the additional role that social background plays beyond the labour market entry.

Intergenerational social mobility in Spain between 1956 and 2011: The role of educational expansion and economic modernisation in a late industrialised country

This article explores intergenerational class mobility patterns and the role played by education in Spain using counterfactuals. Both men and women born from 1926 to 1981 are analysed, meaning the study covers a period of profound economic and educational advances in a late-industrialised country. The results suggest that, among the cohorts born in the 1970s, men have experienced a slight increase in social fluidity, while women have experienced a substantial increase that seems partially driven by their massively increased access to routine non-manual positions independent of their social origins. Inequality of educational opportunities and class returns to education have declined, whereas the direct effect of social origins (DESO) has remained constant for men and has decreased considerably for women. The counterfactual analysis shows that the slight increase in social fluidity for men is mainly driven by educational expansion. For women, the DESO and educational expansion account for a great share of increasing fluidity. Therefore, certain assumptions made by the Modernization Theory and Goldthorpe’s Theory of Social Mobility can be put into question.

The Direct Effect of Social Origins on Social Mobility Chances: ‘Glass Floors’ and ‘Glass Ceilings’ in Britain

textabstractIn this article we pursue, using appropriate British birth cohort data, various issues that arise from recent research into the ‘direct’ effect of social origins on individuals’ social mobility chances: i.e. the effect that is not mediated by education and that can be seen as giving rise to non-meritocratic ‘glass floors’ and ‘glass ceilings’. We show that if educational level is determined at labour market entry, class destinations are significantly associated with class origins independently of education. However, we go on to investigate how far the direct effect may be underestimated by an insufficiently comprehensive treatment of social origins, and also how far it may be overestimated by a failure to take into account the effects of later-life education and resulting changes in individuals’ relative qualification levels. Finally, having arrived at our best estimates of the extent of the direct effect, we seek to identify factors that mediate it. While individuals’ cognitive ability and sense of locus of control prove to play some part, reported parental help in the labour market does not appear to be of any great importance. Some implications of our findings both for further research and for the ideal of an education-based meritocracy are considered.

Origen social y sobreeducación en los universitarios españoles: ¿es meritocrático el acceso a la clase de servicio?

Este artículo analiza el impacto del origen social en la probabilidad de sobreeducación de una cohorte de universitarios españoles, nacida en los 70 y graduada en el curso 1999/2000, mediante la encuesta Refl ex-2005. Comprobamos la infl uencia de tres recursos asociados al origen social (capital cultural, social y económico) para poner a prueba uno de los pilares de la teoría de la modernización: la selección meritocrática. Hemos confi rmado que, aun controlando el campo de estudios, la experiencia laboral y la nota media, existe un efecto del capital cultural y social en la probabilidad de sobreeducación, no así del capital económico. Además, concluimos que el efecto directo del origen social en la sobreeducación no está mediado signifi cativamente por una elección del campo de estudios dependiente del origen social.