THE CAREER ATTAINMENT OF CAUCASIAN AND ASIAN ENGINEERS

This article explores the influence of race and nativity on the one hand and assimilation, human capital, and market structure on the other to explain patterns of income and career transitions of Caucasians and Asians in the engineering profession. Multiple and logistic regression techniques are employed to analyze the career histories of 12,200 Caucasian and Asian engineers followed from 1982 through 1986. The objective is to determine how well Asians have performed in the American engineering labor market in terms of wages, occupational status, and promotion in comparison to Caucasians. The results indicate more racial disparity in managerial representation and upward mobility than in earnings, and more disparity in career attainment between foreign-born Asians and Caucasians than between native-born Asians and Caucasians. The data suggest that Asian engineers, except recent immigrants, have achieved earnings parity but have not yet attained occupational equality with Caucasians.     

The Motherhood Penalty at Midlife: Long‐Term Effects of Children on Women's Careers

The authors build on prior research on the motherhood wage penalty to examine whether the career penalties faced by mothers change over the life course. They broaden the focus beyond wages to also consider labor force participation and occupational status and use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women to model the changing impact of motherhood as women age from their 20s to their 50s (n = 4,730). They found that motherhood is “costly” to women's careers, but the effects on all 3 labor force outcomes attenuate at older ages. Children reduce women's labor force participation, but this effect is strongest when women are younger and is eliminated by the 40s and 50s. Mothers also seem able to regain ground in terms of occupational status. The wage penalty for having children varies by parity, persisting across the life course only for women who have 3 or more children.     

Early career occupational mobility of Turkish and Moroccan second-generation migrants in Flanders,Belgium

This article analyses the early career occupational mobility of people from a Turkish or Moroccan descent in Flanders (Belgium). Previous research showed that second-generation migrants are less successful than natives when entering the labour market. We compare the progress in socio-economic status (SES) that youngsters of native and non-native descent make from their first to later jobs at the start of their career. Both second-generation immigrants and native majority young adults experience upward occupational mobility during this crucial phase of their occupational career. The gap between native and ethnic minority youth, however, does not narrow over the course of the years. The first job offers less SES for non-natives compared to that of natives, and the minority-native gap in occupational attainment remains constant afterwards. The future career is largely determined by the characteristics of the start of the occupational career, and educational attainment even before. Promising, however, might be the finding that a first job with a relative low occupational status does offer better opportunities for Turkish and Moroccan second-generation migrants than for native majority youth to do some catching up later on. In combination with a long-term negative impact of initial unemployment, ethnic minority youth perhaps are best off with starting to work as soon as possible after school leaving.     

Monopsony power in the market for teachers: Why teachers should support market-based education reform

Employers can exploit individuals with high moving costs when local labor markets are not competitive. Along with nurses and university faculty, teachers are sometimes in such a disadvantageous situation. Teachers’ price elasticity of supply may be quite low in many regions, and their geographic mobility may be low when they are their household's second wage earner. Their occupational mobility is often low because of the scarcity of alternate employers within commuting distance. Nearly 96 percent of Texas' teachers work in tax-financed school districts, and many regions have only one district. An econometric model developed from school district data from 48 South Texas and 48 North Texas counties supports the hypothesis that teachers are paid less in less competitive labor markets. In Texas, teachers’ salaries are not determined by collective bargaining between district officials and teacher unions. That relatively unique feature of Texas makes it especially well-suited to the task of disentangling monopsony effects from other labor market forces.     

MOBILITY FROM PRERETIREMENT TO POSTRETIREMENT JOB

While the normative pattern of retirement is complete cessation of labor force activity, approximately one-third of men work during their retirement. This research focuses on such "working-retirees" by investigating the prevalence and patterns of occupational mobility from pre- to postretirement job, as well as the impact that institutional constraints on (re)employment in later life may have on the chances of occupational mobility. Using data from the older men's cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys, a sample of working-retirees was extracted from men who retired between 1967 and 1978. Results showed a substantial amount of occupational mobility among the working-retired. The structure of mobility was found to be similar to younger labor force participants in that most mobility consists of moves to adjacent occupational categories. Unlike career mobility of nonretired workers, however, the large majority of moves constituted downward mobility. Using the economic segmentation perspective, log-linear and logistic regression analyses indicated that working-retirees whose preretirement jobs were in the core sector were more likely to experience occupational mobility. As a more specific indicator of bureaucratic control of the labor force, industry-level pension coverage rates were used in the logistic regressions and higher rates of pension coverage were found to result in a greater likelihood of mobility. These results indicate that the considerable occupational mobility experienced by working-retirees is partially the result of structural constraints on the employment of older men.     

Occupational Advantage and the Impact of College Rank on Labor Market Outcomes*

Most analyses of the effects of college rank on labor market outcomes focus on its average impact across sub-populations and employment situations. The framework adopted in this paper, however, suggests that the effects of college rank may vary by individual characteristics and type of job. Using data from the 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation Survey, we test three hypotheses suggesting that occupational advantage, as measured either by family of origin or current position, is a significant determinant of capacity to convert increments in college prestige into labor market success. The findings suggest that where one went to college is especially consequential for (1) the occupational status of individuals from professional families; (2) the earnings of individuals from both professional and managerial families; and (3) the earnings of individuals in both professional and managerial positions. Overall, these findings tend to confirm the study's underlying hypothesis that aggregate analyses of college rank may be misleading when applied across sub-populations and employment situations.     

ETHNIC LABOR MARKETS, GENDER, AND SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITY:

The research examines the way in which the economic structure of the Arab labor market in Israel, coupled with gender-linked occupational segregation affects gender differences in socioeconomic attainment. The analysis is based on the 1983 Israeli Census of Population. The concept of ethnic labor market is discussed in a comparative perspective, shifting the focus to public sector employment which is central to the Arab labor market in Israel. The analyses led to a twofold conclusion: first, the Arab labor market in Israel operates as a protected labor market, and second, it interacts with gender in the determination of socioeconomic outcomes. In the absence of competition minority workers are able to achieve in the ethnic labor market high status occupational positions that are typically denied them in the wider society. The occupational advantages are especially pronounced among Arab women. For men, employment in the ethnic labor market increases occupational status but provides lower earnings than employment outside.     

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND THE COMPOSITION OF LABOR MARKET TURNOVER

The composition of labor market turnover is shown to influence patterns of international trade. Job and worker turnover have opposing marginal effects on industry export intensity, highlighting the importance of relative turnover shares on either side of the labor market, as opposed to total volumes of labor mobility, in shaping economic outcomes. Industries with relatively greater shares of worker turnover export more of total production, and those with higher job turnover export less. Furthermore, relatively high job turnover hinders industry adjustment following trade liberalization. These predictions receive support for U.S. manufacturing industries using turnover data in the Quarterly Workforce Indicators available from the U.S. Census Bureau. (JEL F16)     

Weiterbilden und Weiterkommen? Non-formale berufliche Weiterbildung und Arbeitsmarktmobilität in Deutschland

Politicians and the business leaders regularly stress the importance of (further) education for individual life chances. Still, it is far from clear whether non-formal further training, i.?e. short training courses, which are the most common forms of further education in Germany, lead to career advancement. In this study, we analyze the impact of non-formal further training on labor market mobility using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) over the period from 2009 to 2016. Event history models for discrete time intervals show that employer-provided courses reduce mobility and promote career stability, which contradicts hypotheses derived from human capital theory, which is commonly used in the literature. More concretely, employer-provided courses prevent downward mobility (safety net function), but also reduce upward mobility and firm changes. Based on these findings, we suggest that future research should consider transaction costs and the firm context as well as the distinction between employer-provided and non-employer-provided training.     

Erosion oder Stabilität der Beruflichkeit?

Regarding the changing patterns of mobility processes in the German labor market, this paper takes up the scientific debate on the declining significance of occupational qualifications. By comparing several labor market entry cohorts, the matching of the learned occupation and the practiced occupation is analyzed in both the horizontal and the vertical dimension of occupational mobility. In doing so, the question of a successful utilization of the skills acquired in the educational process can be addressed. Changes of occupations will be operationalized on the basis of a new professional classification by using the data set “Working and Learning in a Changing World” (ALWA). First, the Kaplan Meier survival curves show that the risks of horizontal occupational mobility have increased across cohorts. This indicates that the formerly close relationship between the education system and the employment system has weakened. Furthermore, according to our multivariate Cox regression analysis, the mobility towards inadequate status positions has increased. Thus, due to the expansion of atypical forms of employment and the increased volatility of the markets, altered mobility patterns of the younger cohorts entering the labor market can be shown. Consequently, the increase of unsuccessful transfers of skills in inter-firm mobility suggests a weakened cohesiveness between professionalism and a growing risk to loose professional qualifications.     

Social mobility among migrants between Mexico and the U.S. and within the U.S. labor market

This paper uses data collected in 4 Mexican communities (2 rural and 2 urban) in 1982 and 1983, using a sample of 200 households, plus an additional 25 households. This analysis supports these hypotheses: 1) a U-shaped pattern of occupational mobility exists among migrants to the US; 2) the reversal of the initial downward mobility is positively correlated with the accumulation of experience within the US; and 3) the relative steepness of both legs of the pattern vary across socioeconomic with rural origin, illegal, and poorly educated migrants experiencing the slowest reversal of fortune. The occupational mobility of Mexican migrants to the US has 2 distinct phases: 1) labor market entry and 2) that which occurs within the US labor market. Both phases are characterized by occupational immobility and by migrants' area of origin. Other important findings are 1) the slowness with which upward mobility occurs among migrants on their 1st trip, 2) the dominance of agriculture as an occupational group, and 3) an improvement in mobility prospects with increased US experience for repeat migrants. Immobility for 1st time entrants pervades all occupational categories and is exceptionally high for rural origin migrants in agriculture. Rural origin unskilled workers encounter greater mobility constraints, indicating a rural agricultural worker may accomplish an upward movement to the unskilled category, but the chances of further movement are remote. Upon entering the US, the probability of being employed in agriculture is over 25% for all groups except the unskilled. Adjusting successfully to US society is best accomplished by migrants whose Mexican occupation is professional, technical, skilled, or service or who have carefully timed their migration and have accumulated significant experience in the host society. It is only with exposure to the US society, either through a prolonged stay or many trips, that a migrant can overcome the debilitating effects of a disadvantaged socioeconomic background.     

Entscheidung unter Unsicherheit – Familiengründung und -erweiterung im Erwerbsverlauf

The current investigation analyses the impact of income and economic uncertainty on women’s family formation and expansion. Analyses based on the data of the German Socio-economic Panel reveal that partner income and income security have positive effects on the propensity toward family formation. Conversely, downward mobility in the partner’s career inhibits second birth transitions. Partner resources could be interpreted as social capital facilitating the realisation of the desire for children. Furthermore, the investigation shows that only persistent occupational uncertainty has negative effects on first birth transitions valid equally for men and women. Consequently, results suggest that women are not backtracking from the labour market in reaction to experiences of uncertainty and exclusion. This indicates that women’s occupational establishment is an important condition of family formation. In conclusion, the analysis documents that individual economic und social situation rather than potential economic incalculabilities associated with higher unemployment rates.     

BEYOND EDUCATION AND FAIRNESS: A LABOR MARKET TAXATION MODEL FOR THE GREAT GATSBY CURVE

Applied researchers have been drawn to models that attribute the demonstrated cross‐country differences in intergenerational income transmission to government failures to invest in the human capital of poor children. To highlight another potential mechanism, the disincentive effects of labor market taxation and redistribution, we present a simple model that can explain cross‐country differences in intergenerational mobility and other previously observed empirical patterns. Empirical tests using data on income mobility, tax rates, and public expenditures largely support the model predictions. We conclude that the common presumption that intergenerational mobility largely measures fairness or opportunity, and the resultant policy recommendations, are premature. (JEL D31, J24, J62)     

Occupational Status of Rural Outmigrants and Return Migrants1

Abstract This research analyzes the occupational status payoffs to short-term outmigration and return migration for male workers in a developing country. Using an occupational status model that integrates explanations from the status attainment and migration literatures and longitudinal data from the Philippine Migration Survey, the results show that both outmigrants and return migrants have lower occupational prestige scores than nonmigrants. Regression standardization and decomposition analyses reveal that while rural outmigrants are positively selected on socioeconomic characteristics compared with nonmigrants, their lower occupational prestige scores are largely because their prior farming and fishing occupational experiences does not properly prepare them for the urban labor market Return migrants' lower occupational status scores are due to negative selection on socioeconomic characteristics.     

Gender Asymmetry in Family Migration: Occupational Inequality or Interspousal Comparative Advantage?

This paper examines gender inequality in the determinants of job‐related long‐distance migration among married dual‐earner couples during the 1980s and 1990s. The analysis tested the structural explanation, which attributes gender asymmetry in family migration to structural inequality in the labor market, and the comparative advantage explanation derived from relative resource theory. The analysis used individual‐ and family‐level data from 5,504 Panel Study of Income Dynamics families, occupation‐level data from the 1980–2000 U.S. Decennial Censuses Integrated Public Use Micro Samples, and discrete‐time event history models. Gender differences in the determinants of family migration were not explained by gender differences in occupational characteristics, but the results partially support the relative resource theory by illustrating the conditioning influence of interspousal comparative advantage.     

Gender Role Ideology and the Gender Based Differences in Earnings

Much of the research on gender differences in occupational earnings still focuses on human capital and the structure of the labor market. However, these variables rarely explain even half of the gender gap in earnings. Most research has examined the impact of gender role ideology as it impacts occupational choice, which indirectly can impact earnings. Using data from the National Opinion Research Center General Social Surveys, this research focuses on the relationship between attitudes about gender roles and two variables: (a) earnings, and (b) occupational positions held by women and men. Findings show that traditional gender-role ideology contributes to lower observed earnings for both males and females, independent of the influences of human capital characteristics, occupational context, and ascribed characteristics. Results support socialization as a partial explanation for the gender-based earnings differences and suggest that, to the extent that economic rewards are used to assess the value of gender role expectations, traditional gender role attitudes might continue to change and lead to relatively equal earnings among women and men.     

OFFSHORING PRODUCTION: A SIMPLE MODEL OF WAGES,PRODUCTIVITY, AND GROWTH

We examine the relationship between offshoring and the labor market in an occupational choice model of trade and endogenous growth where workers are employed on the basis of their individual skill levels. Trade liberalization leads to offshoring and reduces employment in the manufacturing sector. Displaced workers move into traditional and innovation sectors according to their skill levels, shaping real wages and aggregate productivity in the manufacturing sector. The paper aims to show how inter‐sectoral labor market adjustments, highlighted by skill heterogeneity, could be a possible explanation for the simultaneous rise in productivity and reduction in real wages that have coincided with the sharp escalation of offshoring activities in the U.S. manufacturing sector since 2004. (JEL F16, F23, J24)     

Is there any merit to the merit-based immigration system? What Sub-Saharan African immigrant labor and housing market outcomes tell us about U.S. economic and immigration systems

For decades, U.S. immigration policy debates have centered on creating a merit-based system limiting entry to high-skilled immigrants. Yet the emphasis on merit-based immigration ignores the fact that high-skilled immigrants already enter the United States in merit-based immigration assume high-skilled immigrants benefit the U.S. economy because they are better able than low-skilled immigrants to translate skills into economic success. Using Sub-Saharan (Black) African immigrants' labor and housing market outcomes, I show that meritocracy only partially explains U.S. labor and housing outcomes, leaving a merit-based system unlikely to address America's economic needs. The majority of immigrants to the U.S. are non-White, and racial discrimination in the labor market results in occupational and wage disadvantages in the U.S. Due to the public charge rule, high skilled immigrants may be less likely to get their visas renewed or green card applications approved because of these labor market disadvantages. Without stable visa status, high-skilled immigrants will be less likely to make long-term economic investments in the United States—an important way of contributing to the U.S. economy. Together, research indicates that U.S. immigration reform will not work without first enacting policy addressing racial disparities in economic systems.     

Social Class and Expectations of Rural Adolescents: The Role of Parental Expectations

This study investigated mechanisms involved in the intergenerational transmission of social class, specifically addressing the prediction of career expectations. The results indicated that among rural high school students (N= 200) in Grades 10–12, there was no direct effect of socioeconomic status (SES; as measured by parent education and occupation) on career expectations. However, there was a direct effect of educational expectations on occupational expectations. Building on the importance of educational expectations in the prediction of occupational expectations, the results suggested that perceived parental expectations explain variance in educational expectations. Overall, it seems that the effect of SES on occupational expectations was mediated by educational expectations; therefore, individuals of lower SES who have increased educational expectations are more likely to have occupational expectations similar to those of their higher SES peers. Moreover, increased parental expectations were positively associated with educational expectations among individuals of various SES levels.