Speakers: Davis Kedrosky and Eli Locke
Speaker: Eli Locke
Title: Intergenerational Occupational Transmission
Abstract: How do parent's occupations influence the occupational choice of their children? Using 1910-1940 linked United States census data containing millions of father-son pairs, I characterize the complete father-son occupational transition matrix at a highly granular level. Having a father in a given occupation makes his son 230% more likely to choose that occupation, and 25-60% more likely to choose an occupation similar to his father's. This does not vary between second-generation immigrants and the sons of natives, although it masks substantial heterogeneity across occupations. However, second-generation immigrants are more likely to follow their father's occupation. Identifying the causal impact of parental occupational following on wages is complicated by selection, especially along the margin of sons who do not leave their birth county.
Maggie Hendrix
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