Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The United States is currently experiencing the largest inequalities of wealth and income since the Roaring Twenties. The determinants of these inequalities are numerous, complex, and often difficult to measure. Some researchers examine socioeconomic mobility by comparing income or wealth across generations. Another way to think about socioeconomic mobility is through an examination of occupational prestige elasticity: are children entering higher prestige occupations than their parents?

This research uses the Nakao and Treas occupational prestige taxonomy (see: Davis et al. 1991, ICPSR 9593) to compare father and son occupational prestige, and generate a measure of elasticity. Calculations are based off a sample of 460 sons and fathers in the 1997 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) family-level data. Preliminary findings indicate that the correlation between father-son income is extremely similar to father-son occupational prestige. According to Mazumder 2005, father-son income elasticity is estimated at 0.34. This sample's father-son occupational prestige elasticity is estimated at 0.35 (p<0.001). This research, using an OLS regression model (R-squared = 0.344) and controlling for race, son's income, and education, estimates that a father's occupational prestige significantly influences their son's occupational prestige (p<0.01). The research also indicates that, among the 1997 PSID cohort of male family heads, they held on average higher-prestige jobs than their fathers (son mean prestige score of 44, father mean prestige score of 42). This result corroborates other commonly used measures (e.g. socioeconomic indices; income averages) that demonstrate the phenomenon of upward absolute socioeconomic mobility.

This work suggests that further research is needed in the area of occupational prestige transmission. Occupational prestige is a potentially valid surrogate for socioeconomic status. The prestige of one's occupation affects interactions with institutions and networks in ways that are similarly powerful as the impact of one's income. Key areas of future research include updating the Nakao and Treas occupational prestige taxonomy to best reflect modern society's views on occupations; investigating how occupational prestige elasticities vary by race; and how changes in social norms vis-a-vis women's labor force participation influence such analyses.