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Title: THE DECLINING SIGNIFICANCE OF OCCUPATIONAL CONTINGENCY TABLES IN THE STUDY OF INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2019
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Abstract: The study of intergenerational mobility was once viewed as a quintessentially sociological topic that was widely investigated using occupational mobility tables. However, the popularity of occupational mobility tables seems to be rapidly dwindling. This change is associated with the increasing popularity of the economic approach to modeling intergenerational mobility which is not encumbered by the shortcomings of occupational mobility tables. The first limitation of the latter is the contextual nature of occupation which provides an increasingly imprecise indicator of the individual’s earnings or other socioeconomic outcomes. The second limitation is the lack of focus on long-term earnings and the continued reliance on cross-sectional data in an era of increased labor market volatility. The third limitation is the dubious practice of partitioning mobility into structural-mobility versus circulation-mobility and focusing on primarily the latter to make generalizations about the level of social fluidity in society. The fourth limitation is the failure of occupational models to discern important empirical trends (such as rising earnings inequality and the Great Gatsby Curve). The fifth limitation is that, defined as categories of primary job duties, occupation is an inaccurate indicator of non-pecuniary job rewards and compensating differentials. Younger sociologists are abandoning occupational mobility tables—despite their once great popularity—in favor of economic models which are not significantly compromised by these limitations.
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Authors: Sakamoto, Arthur; Wang, Sharron, X
Publisher: Texas A&M University
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other, Population Data Science
Countries: United States