Occupational Stratification across the Life Course: Evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
利用威斯康星纵向研究数据，分析家庭背景、教育、认知能力等因素对职业地位的影响如何随生命历程变化，并校正测量误差和家庭背景未测量因素。
Sociologists frequently study changes across cohorts in the consequences of family background, gender, education, and cognitive ability for occupational outcomes. This study focuses, however, on how the consequences of these variables change within the course of individuals’ lives. To appropriately estimate changes across the life course in the determinants of occupational standing, corrections are made for measurement errors in variables, and data on siblings are used to account for all aspects (measured and unmeasured) of family background. The analyses use data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which provides multiple measures of siblings’ occupational standing at four points in their lives. Models of sibling resemblance show that the effects of family background on occupational standing operate entirely through their effects on education and cognitive ability. The effects of education decline across the life course, while the effects of ability remain small but persistent. In comparing men and women, substantial differences are found in career trajectories and in life course changes in occupational returns to schooling.