Jan O. Jonsson

Analyzing Educational Careers: A Multinomial Transition Model

The logit model of educational transitions has become standard in research in educational stratification. One limitation of the model, however is the assumption that individuals progress through the educational system in a unilinear sequential mode. Many school systems contain parallel branches of study that are most fruitfully seen as qualitatively different alternative pathways with different probabilities of school continuation attached to them. This study tests a multinomial model of educational careers, that takes previous paths and grade-point averages into account. Applied to a large Swedish longitudinal data set the model tests whether conclusions about class stratification in educational attainment based on a logit model are borne out. Results show that the pathway a student has taken through the school system influences the probability of making subsequent educational transitions. This result is robust to unmeasured heterogeneity modeled using a latent class approach. Furthermore, the traditional log it model tends to deflate class-origin effects at early transition points while inflating them at the transition to higher education. The results give some support to the hypothesis that origin effects are strongest at more indirect and unusual pathways

Family dissolution, family reconstitution, and children’s educational careers: Recent evidence for Sweden

Both longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses on a large and recent Swedish data set demonstrate that, compared to children in intact families, children who have experienced family dissolution or reconstitution show lower educational attainment at age 16. Time constraints do not seem to be an important mechanism behind the negative effect of separation. Economic deprivation affects children s attainment negatively, but downward social mobility appears to be an even more important causal mechanism: Losing the parent with the higher social position probably reduces social capital and aspirations. When we control for socioeconomic characteristics, a small net effect of separation and reconstitution remains.

Microclass mobility: social reproduction in four countries.

In the sociological literature on social mobility, the long‐standing convention has been to assume that intergenerational reproduction takes one of two forms: a categorical form that has parents passing on a big‐class position to their children or a gradational form that has parents passing on their socioeconomic standing. These approaches ignore in their own ways the important role that occupations play in transferring opportunities from one generation to the next. In new analyses of nationally representative data from the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Japan, the authors show that (a) occupations are an important conduit for social reproduction, (b) the most extreme rigidities in the mobility regime are only revealed when analyses are carried out at the occupational level, and (c) much of what shows up as big‐class reproduction in conventional mobility analyses is in fact occupational reproduction in disguise.

Social Origin as an Interest-bearing Asset: Family Background and Labour-market Rewards among Employees in Sweden

We analysed the effects of social origin on social class and income for a large sample of Swedish employees, aged 25-45, in 1990. The statistical models are particularly strong in handling mediating effects of educational attainment. The results show that, controlling for level and type of education, sons and daughters of higher white-collar origin have substantially greater chances of reaching service class positions than children of unskilled working class origin. We also found origin effects on income. In a model evaluating level, type of education and work experience, the advantage to income of having a white-collar origin is about 3-8 per cent. While origin effects on class position appear at the onset of work life, origin effects on income tend to be more evident throughout peoples careers. Hypotheses about four mechanisms behind origin effects- Networks, Favouritism, Productivity, and Aspirations - are discussed on the basis of the results.

Ethnic Inequality in Choice-driven Education Systems A Longitudinal Study of Performance and Choice in England and Sweden

The authors ask whether choice-driven education systems, with comprehensive schools and mass education at the secondary and tertiary level, represented in this article by England and Sweden, provide educational opportunities for ethnic minorities. In studying educational attainment, the authors make a theoretical distinction between mechanisms connected with school performance on the one hand (primary effects) and educational choice, given performance, on the other (secondary effects). Using large national data sets and recently developed methods, they show that performance effects tend to depress the educational attainment of most, although not all, ethnic minorities, whereas choice effects increase the transition rates of these students. This pattern is repeated at the transition to university education. These results are true for many immigrant categories in both England and Sweden, although immigrant students are a heterogeneous group. Black Caribbean students in England and children of Turkish and South American descent in Sweden fare worst, while several Asian groups do extremely well. The authors conclude that it may be a generic feature of choice-driven school systems in Western societies to benefit non-European immigrants, and they discuss some possible explanations for this.

Social Class and Educational Attainment in Historical Perspective: A Swedish-English Comparison Part II

Nationally representative data sets are used to compare the pattern of social class inequality in educational attainment in England and Sweden during the 20s century. Logit models are estimated to test hypotheses about change in class inequalities at crucial branching points in the educational system. The analysis show that equalizations are apparent in both nations at the first branching point, where traditionally inequalities were most severe. Working-class children increased their odds of clearing the first educational hurdle relative to offspring of the service class. In Sweden, children of farmes reduced the great initial disadvantage. The trends involving the working classes are remarkably similar in both Countries. The mechanism cannot be interpreted unambiguously as the result of specific educational reforms or expansion programmes.

Who Marries whom in Sweden

A popular song in Sweden is entitled „Love is not blind, but fairly shortsighted“, That is half way to a concession to a regular finding in studies of marriage patterns, namely that factors of little romantic flavor are important for partner selection. People on the whole tend not to „marry out“ of their social group, whether it be ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, or based on educational qualifications (for a review, see Kalmijn 1998). One explanation for such homogamy is that individuals, far from being blind for love, have clear preferences about their future marriage partner’s social and cultural characteristics. Such preferences may be about similarities, e.g., sharing cultural, life-style, or political interests (which all are signaled by educational qualifications). But also if everybody in the marriage market follows a queue principle in their preference order — such as preferring a well-educated spouse with high earnings potential — the combination of preferences and resources will lead to educational assortative mating (cf. Mare 1991).

Union Disruption in Sweden: Does Economic Dependency Inhibit Separation?

Abstract: This article investigates whether economic dependency is negatively related to separation in Sweden by examining the Swedish Level-of-Living Surveys coupled with annual register data on income. This provides the opportunity to study the relative income and the family status of a random sample of the adult population during (most of) a twenty-four-year window, 1966–90. Women’s contribution to the household income increased from around 20 percent in the mid-to late 1960s to 35–40 percent in the early 1990s. This may be a partial explanation for increasing rates of union disruption in Sweden. We find some, though not unequivocal, support for the hypothesis that the less economically dependent one spouse is on the other, the higher the risks of union dissolution. There is little support for the assumption that the total household income is negatively related to risks of separation, however.

Choice by Contrast in Swedish Schools: How Peers' Achievement Affects Educational Choice

We ask whether a social contrast mechanism depresses the educational aspirations of students with high-achieving peers. We study two entire cohorts of students in the final grade of the Swedish comprehensive school with matched information on social origin and achievements (160,417 students, 829 schools). Controlling for school fixed effects and observed characteristics of students and families, we find that the propensity to make a high-aspiring choice of upper-secondary school program is lower for students with high-achieving schoolmates, given own achievement. While theoretically interesting, the effect is small compared to that of own achievement: Moving an average student from an average school to a school that lies one standard deviation lower in achievement increases the probability of a high-aspiring choice by three percentage points.

Class and the Changing Nature of Work: Testing Hypotheses of Deskilling and Convergence among Swedish Employees

The changing nature of work is often supposed to be of consequence for interest formation and political alliances between social classes. Three hypotheses are tested: classes converge due to the deskilling of white-collar work or the upskilling of blue-collar work; lower white-collar workers essentially share the conditions of manual workers; the gender dimension cross-cuts the class dimension. Empirical analyses are carried out on the Swedish Level of Living Surveys in 1968, 1974, 1981 and 1991. The major trend is towards an upskilling, though jobs have not become less monotonous. There are signs of class convergence, e.g., in wages and authority, but sharp differences remain. While class divisions exist for both men and women, gender differences within classes are substantial for physical working conditions and market capacity. For several indicators, lower white-collar workers are exposed to similar conditions as manual workers while men in the highest stratum stand out as the consistently most privileged.