Selection into Occupations and the Intergenerational Socioeconomic Mobility of Daughters and Sons

This paper analyzes gender differences in occupational status across generations and investigates whether recent changes for women in the labor market have affected intergenerational persistence. Estimates show that men are more upwardly mobile and experience less persistence with respect to their parents' rank in the occupational earnings distribution than women, and that the reverse is true for occupational education. While the genders have converged when starting-salaries and returns to experience are considered, the differences with respect to occupational earnings have not closed and the education gap has widened. Evidence from intergenerational choice regressions shows that men are more likely to be in occupations with high earnings potential, but that they are also more likely to select low-skill occupations which they are more likely to inherit from their fathers. Differential occupational choices by women are influenced by the time women spent keeping house. Gender differences in housework, and the effect of parenthood, are still halting the mobility prospects of women with respect to occupational earnings.