Stefani Scherer

Stepping-Stones or Traps?

This article addresses the question of whether the first job functions as a ‘stepping stone’ or as a ‘trap’. It does so by using individual longitudinal data to estimate the consequences on future occupational attainment of entry into the labour market via (a) ‘under-qualified’ jobs or (b) via temporary contracts. A cross-national comparison of West Germany, Great Britain and Italy allows assessment of the impact of different labour market structures on this allocation process. With regard to ‘under-qualified’ positions, the findings are not consistent with the stepping-stone hypothesis but provide some support for the entrapment hypothesis. Despite the greater mobility chances of over-qualified workers, the initial disadvantage associated with status-inadequate jobs is not fully overcome during their future careers. The article shows, however, that the negative effects are not due to the mismatch as such but rather to the relatively lower level positions. These effects are mediated by the national labour market structure, with the British flexible model providing the best chances of making up for initial disadvantages, and the more tightly regulated and segmented markets in Germany and Italy leading to stronger entrapment in lower status positions. No negative effects of the type of contract are found for later occupational positions in any of the countries.

The CASMIN Educational Classification in International Comparative Research

International comparable measurement instruments for educational attainment are among the basic tools for sociologists’ work. We propose a revised version of the CASMIN (Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations) classification of education, which in the meantime is among the most widely used tools to measure education — besides level or years of schooling or the ISCED classification (see Chapter 10 in this volume). The CASMIN scale has been developed within the social stratification framework in the 1970s in order to capture the effects of different educational systems on processes and patterns of inter- as well as intragenerational mobility. However, the original CASMIN coding schema does not capture the changes that took place in national education systems in the period of educational reforms and expansion.2 For contemporary comparative research, the many forms and levels of vocational qualification as well as the institutional diversification within general education need to be taken into account. We, therefore, present an ‘up-dated’ and partly revised version of the CASMIN classification, including some substantial reformulations and modifications of the original version.

Religiosity, gender attitudes and women’s labour market participation and fertility decisions in Europe

The Second Demographic Transition (SDT) theory underlines the importance of changing values and attitudes to explain the trend toward low fertility and raising female labour market participation. We contribute to this debate comparing religiosity and gender attitudes over several European countries using three waves of the European Values Study (1990, 1999 and 2008). By dealing with the issues of measurement invariance and endogeneity between values and behaviour, our results support some critiques of the SDT theory. The pace of the process of sociocultural change has not been the same across European countries and the forerunners of the SDT, that is, the most secularized and gender-egalitarian societies, now have the highest female labour market participation rates and the highest fertility. We provide evidence for a ‘macro–micro paradox’ regarding the role of values on family behaviours. Religiosity is positively correlated with fertility and housewifery, while gender attitudes are only correlated with women’s labour market decisions. These correlations are stronger in more traditional countries, even if aggregate fertility is lower. We stress the necessity to integrate cultural and structural explanations, suggesting the lack of family policies and the rigidity of the family formation process as possible mechanisms to unravel this paradox.

More investment, less returns? Changing returns to education in Italy across three decades

Educational expansion has often been discussed in terms of possiblydeclining returns to education. The theoretical debate provides arguments supportingboth expectations about declining and increasing returns. Declining returns wouldnot only menace individual investment strategies but also put under pressure themerit based legitimisation of existing social inequalities. In this paper we empiricallyinvestigate these changes over time.In recent years, Italy has witnessed a strong increase in education participationbeyond compulsory schooling - though this country still lags behind most of Europeregarding access to higher education. At the same time, the occupational structurehas not shown any noteworthy upward shift. We describe the trend in the associationbetween educational attainment and labour market outcomes in terms of employmentchances and occupational position based on national labour force survey data coveringthe period from 1985 to 2010. Our results for men and women aged 30-39 showa clear decline in the returns to education, in particular concerning those with anupper secondary education. However, those with a university education have also seena worsening of their occupational condition, especially in recent years.

The Spreading of Cohabitation as a Diffusion Process: Evidence from Italy

Drawing on seminal work by Nazio and Blossfeld (Eur J Popul 19(1):47–82, 2003) and Di Giulio and Rosina (Demogr Res 16(14):441–468, 2007), this paper tests whether the recent spread of cohabitation in Italy has followed the typical pattern of diffusion of innovation processes. In doing so, we contribute to the debate on the determinants of the emergence of “new” family behaviour. Following previous literature, innovative behaviour should spread initially through direct social modelling, i.e. interpersonal communication among highly selected individuals (peer effects). At later stages, the diffusion should spread through knowledge awareness of the innovation, i.e. communication with previous generations (pre-cohort effects), so that also less selected individuals are prone to adopt the new behaviour. In the specific Italian context—a Catholic, “familistic” setting, with high normative pressure and importance of parental approval—we surmise the influence of previous generations to be dominant. We use data from the “Family and Social Subjects” survey carried out by Istat (2009) and apply Event History Analysis in the form of competing-risks exponential models to study Italian women’s transition to cohabitation as first partnership. Results suggest that the most important driver of the spreading of cohabitation in Italy is represented by the degree of its diffusion among older cohorts. However, we find a positive and significant interaction between women’s education and peer effects at the onset of the phenomenon, in line with the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) hypothesis. Cohabitation is also more likely if parents experienced separation/divorce and, more generally, if the environment of the family of origin can be described as “SDT-friendly”.

The Rise of a Latin Model? Family and fertility consequences of employment instability in Italy and Spain

ABSTRACT This paper analyses how unstable employment influences becoming a mother in Italy and Spain. Results suggest that institutional factors foster dynamics of social inequality and hinder family formation. We show that in southern Europe (Italy and Spain), but not in other institutional contexts, the lack of employment stability produces a delay in fertility decision. We attribute this impact of the employment situation on demographic decisions to the sub-protective southern European welfare systems and the insider–outsider labor market configuration, as enhanced by the partial and targeted labor market deregulations of recent decades. In the context of low levels of welfare, unstable employment often comes with persistently reduced entitlement to social and welfare rights, and, therefore, with notable social and demographic consequences. We provide support for this institutional argument by showing that fertility decisions are independent of employment stability in other contexts. Analyses are based on longitudinal data using event history analysis and simultaneous equation models.

Maternal Employment: Enabling Factors in Context:

Maternal employment is still below the overall EU recommended level of 60% in many European countries. Understanding the individual, household and contextual circumstances under which mothers of children of different ages are likely to be employed is crucial to develop strategies capable of increasing maternal employment. This article takes a comparative approach to investigating the characteristics associated with maternal employment in the presence of children aged 0–2, 3–5, 6–9 and 10–12 years. We model the probability of being employed full-time, part-time or being a homemaker using EU-SILC data (2004 to 2007) from Germany, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom – four countries belonging to different gender and welfare regimes. The results indicate that individual and household characteristics are more relevant in determining mothers’ employment in countries where the state is less supportive towards maternal employment: Italy and to a lesser extent Germany and the UK – for the period observed.

Erwerbseintritt in Europa

The transition from school to work is an important step in a young persons life, carrying significant ramifications for ones ensuing career. This transition has witnessed substantial changes in the past decade, now taking place substantially later in life in all European countries. This article aims at describing cross-national differences in the process of entry to work in Europe, differences which are still noticeable despite existing commonalities. High unemployment rates in some countries reflect problems young people experience when entering working life. The differences in youth unemployment chances that exist across Europe can be traced back to specific institutional structures in these countries. Among these, the system of education plays a central role, as it determines the qualification structure, the level of education and the age at leaving school. After a wide descriptive overview of educational structures across Europe we focus on three countries: (western) Germany, Italy and Great Britain. A detailed analysis of the early careers of recent school leavers points to the existence of distinct national patterns of employment entry. Empirical analyses draw on the European Labour Force Surveys and national panel data sets.

Education and Unemployment Risks among Market Entrants

In many European societies, high levels of youth unemployment are perceived as a major social problem. Since the late 1970s, a significant proportion of young people has come to face considerable difficulties to enter the labour market and extended periods of job instability (e.g. Ashton and Sung 1992; Buchtemann et al. 1994; Bynner and Roberts 1991; Evans and Heinz 1994; Franz et al. 2000; Goux and Maurin 1998; Heath and Cheung 1998; Helberger et al. 1994; Muller et al. 1998; Winkelmann 1996).Yet, youth unemployment rates have varied greatly cross-nationally over the past decades. Countries like Germany, Denmark or Austria seem to perform well above the EU average in terms of youth unemployment. One reason behind this relatively favourable performance of these countries might actually lie in the peculiar structure of education and training systems in these countries: much comparative research points out that large-scale vocational training systems are associated with smoother transition processes into working life (Muller and Shavit 1998; OECD 1996, 1998). Besides, individual training investments are still considered the best means to avoid transition problems for young people (Beduwe and Espinasse 1995; Benoit-Guilbot 1995).

The Pay-Off from Education: A North-South Comparison

Young people’s transition to adulthood is of interest to sociologists and economists alike. Their entry into the labour market is regarded as of crucial importance, given its capacity to structure life history and occupational outcomes. Marked changes in the Italian labour market have included the arrived of ‘atypical’,1 ‘contingent’ and ‘partial guarantee’ jobs, as opposed to traditional Fordist employment relations, with lifelong employment and institutional protection. Taking it as given that these types of job are largely restricted to new labour market entrants (Barbieri et al., 1999; Schizzerotto, Pisati 2003),2 and given the partial and selective deregulation of the Italian labour market in recent years (Esping-Andersen and Regini 2000), the question that arises is whether such jobs should be viewed as traps or stepping stones.