Robert M. Hauser

The Decomposition of Effects in Path Analysis

This paper is about the logic of interpreting recursive causal theories in sociology. We review the distinction between associations and effects and discuss the decomposition of effects into direct and indirect components. We then describe a general method for decomposing effects into their components by the systematic application of ordinary least squares regression. The method involves successive computation of reduced-form equations, beginning with an equation containing only exogenous variables, then computing equations which add intervening variables in sequence from cause to effect. This generates all the information required to decompose effects into their various direct and indirect parts. This method is a substitute for the often more cumbersome computation of indirect effects from the structural coefficients (direct effects) of the causal model Finally, we present a way of summarizing this information in tabular form and illustrate the procedures using an empirical example.

Socioeconomic Indexes for Occupations: A Review, Update, and Critique

Following a review of the history and sources of socioeconomic indexes for occupations, we estimate a new set of indexes for 1990 Census occupation lines, based on relationships between the prestige ratings obtained by Nakao and Treas in the 1989 General Social Survey and characteristics of occupational incumbents in the 1990 Census. We also investigate theoretical and empirical relationships among socioeconomic and prestige indexes, using data from the 1994 General Social Survey. Many common occupations, especially those held by women, do not fit the typical relationships among prestige, education, and earnings. The fit between prestige and socioeconomic characteristics of occupations can be improved by statistical transformation of the variables. However, in rudimentary models of occupational stratification, prestige-validated socioeconomic indexes are of limited value. They give too much weight to occupational earnings, and they ignore intergenerational relationships between occupational education and occupational earnings. Levels of occupational education appear to define the main dimension of occupational persistence across and within generations. We conclude that composite indexes of occupational socioeconomic status are scientifically obsolete.

Sex, Schooling, and Occupational Status.

Based on data from an 18-year follow-up of Wisconsin high school seniors, this paper describes the process of occupational achievement among men and women from labor market entry to mid-life. In contrast to several earlier studies, there are marked sex differences in the acquisition and maintenance of occupational status. The effect of post high school education on the status of first jobs is twice as great among men as among women, and the effect of the status of first jobs on that of current jobs is one-third greater among men than among women. Men gain an average of nine points on the Duncan scale betweentheir first civilian jobs and their jobs at age 36, but women lose an average of more than two points on the Duncan scale. At the same time, sex differences in occupational attainment are not all disadvantageous to women. First jobs of women are six points higher in status on the average than first jobs of men, and when the status of first jobs is controlled, the continuing influence of schooling on occupational status is twice as great among women as among men. Consequently, as others have also found, the total effects of schooling on the occupational statuses of women and men are the same at mid-life. Among the minority of women who remain childless, the process of occupational attainment is more similar to that among men.

The Treatment of Unobservable Variables in Path Analysis

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 65th annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, held at Washington, D.C., August 31 through September 3, 1970. At that time, it was distributed as Workshop Paper EME 7030 by the Social Systems Research Institute, University of Wisconsin. Work on this project was in part supported by the Graduate School Research Committee of the University of Wisconsin, by the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service (M-6275), and by the Social and Rehabilitation Service, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (CRD-314).

Assumptions of social mobility research in the U.S.: The case of occupational status☆

Abstract This paper examines the theoretical and empirical basis for common rank-orderings of occupational roles by raters throughout the world. From an illustrative comparison of occupational stratification in Australia and the United States we conclude tentatively that (1) commonalities in the socioeconomic characteristics of occupational roles provide the basis for interplace consistencies in “prestige” scores, (2) the structure of occupational mobility in the U.S. and Australia is largely similar, (3) this similar structure of occupational stratification manifests a common socioeconomic process which defines a (the?) major component of occupational mobility in capitalist, industrial (only?) societies. We infer that “prestige” scores for occupations are fallible estimates of the socioeconomic statuses of occupation, within the context of mobility processes in (at least) the U.S. and Australia.

A Model of Stratification with Response Error in Social and Psychological Variables

The well-known Wisconsin model of achievement posits that the influence of socioeconomic origins on educational, occupational and economic attainment is largelv mediated bY acsademic performance, social influences and aspirations in secondary schooling. The model has been widely replicated, elaborated and criticized. The present analysis asks how powerful this model might be in accounting for social influences, aspirations and attainments when measurement error has been taken into account. There are two indicators of most theoretical construc ts in the model, and manv of these were ascertained from independent sources or as many as 20 Years apart. The model identifies selected response error c orrelations between variables ascertained on the same occasion, from the same person or using the same method. The model also permits retrospective reports of social influences and aspirations to be c ontaminated by intervening events. In our revised estimates, we find empirical support for earlier spec ificsations of the Wisconsin model. We alsofind that the revised model is more powerful in explaining the process of educational and occupational attainment.

Equality of Schooling: Trends and Prospects.

Among cohorts of U.S. men born during the first half of the twentieth century, as the length of schooling has increased, its variability has decreased and schooling has become more equally distributed. Intergenerational differences in schooling are larger than three years in some birth cohorts, but these differences may be declining, and the period of rapid increase in levels of schooling appears to be ending. The disadvantages in schooling associated with farm background, broken families, Southern birth, black skin, and Spanish origin appear to be declining, but those associated with poorly educated or low status fathers and with large families have persisted. Family origins consistently explain at least 55 percent of the variance in schooling, and perhaps as much as 70 percent. Since the end of World War II schooling of parents has continued to increase, and this implies continuing demand for increased schooling in future years.

COMPARATIVE SOCIAL MOBILITY REVISITED: MODELS OF CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE IN 16 COUNTRIES*

This paper reanalyzes 3-stratum intergenerational mobility classifications, assembled by Hazelrigg and Garnier for men in 16 countries in the 1960s and 1970s. Log-linear and log-multiplicative models are used to compare mobility regimes and to estimate effects of industrialization, educational enrollment, social democracy, and income inequality on immobility and other parameters of the mobility process. Several models of mobility fit the data equally well, so criteria of plausibility and parsimony are applied to choose one model of stratum-specific immobility and another model of vertical mobility with uniform immobility. We find substantial similarity in mobility and immobility across countries, but the exogenous variables do explain systematic differences among countries. Cross-national variations are complex because most of the exogenous variables have different effects on different parameters of the mobility regime. Relative to other factors, industrialization and education have weaker effects on mobility regimes than has usually been supposed.

Most Reported Genetic Associations With General Intelligence Are Probably False Positives

General intelligence (g) and virtually all other behavioral traits are heritable. Associations between g and specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in several candidate genes involved in brain function have been reported. We sought to replicate published associations between g and 12 specific genetic variants (in the genes DTNBP1, CTSD, DRD2, ANKK1, CHRM2, SSADH, COMT, BDNF, CHRNA4, DISC1, APOE, and SNAP25) using data sets from three independent, well-characterized longitudinal studies with samples of 5,571, 1,759, and 2,441 individuals. Of 32 independent tests across all three data sets, only 1 was nominally significant. By contrast, power analyses showed that we should have expected 10 to 15 significant associations, given reasonable assumptions for genotype effect sizes. For positive controls, we confirmed accepted genetic associations for Alzheimer’s disease and body mass index, and we used SNP-based calculations of genetic relatedness to replicate previous estimates that about half of the variance in g is accounted for by common genetic variation among individuals. We conclude that the molecular genetics of psychology and social science requires approaches that go beyond the examination of candidate genes.

Disaggregating a social-psychological model of educational attainment

Abstract This paper gives an extended empirical treatment of the estimation and interpretation of a block-recursive social-psychological model of socio-economic achievement which is applied to a cohort of male Wisconsin high school graduates. We draw attention to the substantive distinction between the interpretation of measures as causes and effects of the concepts which they represent and illustrate the advantages of disaggregating the components of composite variables. New empirical insights are obtained in the course of the analysis.