More Universalism, Less Structural Mobility: The American Occupational Structure in the 1980s
Abstract
The association between men's and women's socioeconomic origins and destinations decreased by one-third between 1972 and 1985. This trend is related to the rising proportion of workers who have college degrees. Origin status effects destination status among workers who do not have bachelor's degrees, but college graduation cancels the effect of background status. Therefore, the more college graduates in the work force, the weaker the association between origin status and destination status for the population as a whole. Overall mobility remains unchanged because a decline in structural mobility offsets the increased openness of the class structure. Upward mobility still exceeds downward mobility in the 1980s but by a smaller margin than it did in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Prior survey-based research shows that the association between children's and parents' incomes or occupational status is much weaker among college graduates.
“These findings are consistent with prior research using survey data showing that the association between children's and parents' incomes or occupational status is much weaker among college graduates (Hout 1988; Torche 2011).”
From Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility (2017) · cites this paper as Hout 1988
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Heckman, J. (1974) · Econometrica · doi:10.2307/1913937 · Cited by 1,852 · see citing works
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Bayesian model selection in social research
Raftery, A. E. (1995) · Sociological Methodology · doi:10.2307/271063 · Cited by 6,823 · see citing works
Social and Economic Returns to College Education in the United States
Hout, M. (2012) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102503 · Cited by 943 · see citing works
Self-citationMobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility
Chetty, R., Friedman, J., Saez, E., Turner, N., & Yagan, D. (2017) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w23618 · Cited by 632 · see citing works
Social Stratification across Three Generations: New Evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
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Goldthorpe, J. H. (2014) · Rationality and Society · doi:10.1177/1043463113519068 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Passing It On: Parent-to-Adult Child Financial Transfers for School and Socioeconomic Attainment
Rauscher, E. (2016) · RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences · doi:10.7758/rsf.2016.2.6.09 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
- Authors
- Hout, M.
- Corresponding author
- Hout, Michael
- ORCID
- Hout, Michael
- Venue
- American Journal of Sociology
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1988-05
- Volume
- 93
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1358-1400
- ISSN
- 0002-9602 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5390
- OpenAlex
- W2075664771
- Cited by
- 643
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 35 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 41.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Sociology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Cultural Dynamics
- Keywords
- occupational mobility, structural mobility, universalism, university graduates, occupational structure, socioeconomic status, upward mobility, downward mobility, class structure, 1980s
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