Education, Occupation and Social Origin

A comparative Analysis of the Transmission of Socio-Economic Inequalities

Edited by Fabrizio Bernardi and Gabriele Ballarino

Edward Elgar publishing - 2016 isbn 978 1 78536 044 2

See the presentation, the aims and read an extract in the Elgaronline website

This innovative book takes a comparative approach to the social origin–education–destination triangle, looking at the intergenerational transmission of advantage in 14 countries. The intention is to debate the claim that education is the ‘great social equalizer’. The contributors examine the relation between family background, education and occupational achievement over time and across educational levels, focusing on the relationship between individuals’ social origins and their income and occupational outcomes.

• Inequality of educational returns in France: changes in the effect of education and social background on occupational careers, Milan Bouchet Valat, Camille Peugny, Louis-André Vallet, p. 20-33.
  In contemprary France, does social origin still have an influence when young men and women leave the educational system after they obtain their qualifications and their first jobs?
  Family background affects the degree of success of the first step among young people with the same educational assets: does this ascription effect always persist over the course of their subsequent occupational careers? 
  Could it be the case that, in a country characterized by tremendous recent educational expansion the long-lasting effect of social origin has become more prominent in the most recent cohorts as compared with the previous ones?
• Social background and education in occupational attainment in Italy, Gabriele Ballarino, Carlo Barone, Nazareno Panichella, p. 82-93.
  The paper is dealing with the direct 'effect' of social background on occupational achievement (intergenerational occupational correlation), controlling for education. Authors test whether this effect changes over time... They consider the interaction between education and social background in order to check whether the intergenerational occupational correlation is stronger or weaker among more educated individuals. Finally, they examine returns to education over time, looking for changes in the correlation between education and occupational achievement.

Page 30: Interaction education X cohort (prestige score) →
"The loss of value of certificates in terms of prestige score in the first job essentially started with the 1951-56 cohort, especially for the general baccalauréat (2c_gen) and has progressively affected all certificates at an accelerating pace. As regards the prestige score in the current job, the decrease is very steady over surveys and affects all certificates at the same space, while returns in terms of log net wage have also followed the same pattern, through the evolution is less regular in the last survey.

Recension de l'ouvrage par Marie Duru-Bellat (septembre 2016).