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He's a Chip Off the Old Block — The Persistence of Occupational Choices Across Generations
Author(s) -
Knoll Bodo,
Riedel Nadine,
Schlenker Eva
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
labour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1467-9914
pISSN - 1121-7081
DOI - 10.1111/labr.12091
Subject(s) - nature versus nurture , persistence (discontinuity) , occupational mobility , psychology , developmental psychology , demographic economics , economics , biology , genetics , engineering , geotechnical engineering
The purpose of this paper is to assess intergenerational occupational mobility in Germany. Using data from the Socio‐Economic Panel, we find a high persistence of occupational choices across fathers and children. To separate effects related to parental advice and influence (nurture) from genetic factors (nature), we determine the persistence separately for children who grew up with their biological fathers and those who did not. The results suggest that nurture‐related effects explain a significant fraction of the observed correlation of fathers’ and children's occupational choices. We discuss policy implications that follow from the analysis.