The Declining Significance of Occupational Contingency Tables in the Study of Intergenerational Mobility

Arthur Sakamoto , Texas A&M University
Sharron X. Wang, Texas A&M University

The study of intergenerational mobility was once viewed as a quintessentially sociological topic that was widely investigated using occupational mobility tables. However, the popularity of occupational mobility tables seems to be rapidly dwindling. This change is associated with the increasing popularity of the economic approach to modeling intergenerational mobility which is not encumbered by the shortcomings of occupational mobility tables. We discuss these limitations which have not received adequate attention in prior literature. Younger sociologists are now abandoning occupational mobility tables—despite their once great popularity—in favor of economic models. The advantages of latter must indeed be considerable given that this switchover would normally be penalized as a lack of disciplinary “loyalty.”

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 Presented in Session 7. Intergenerational Transmission of Privilege and Disadvantage