Occupational Prestige and Fathers’ Influence on Sons and Daughters

This article aims to provide insights into the intergenerational social mobility of Spanish workers, comparing the occupational prestige of sons and daughters to that of their fathers when the offspring were aged sixteen. We used a pooled-sample for the years 2007–2010, from a nationally representative data base, the Spanish Quality of Working Life Survey, to compute transition matrices, and to estimate the intergenerational elasticity of occupational prestige, considering differences by gender and age group. Our results confirmed that mobility in Spain is in the medium range, from an international perspective, and is slightly higher for daughters than for sons. By age, the younger generation presents an upward jump in prestige with respect to the older generation, along with lower values of intergenerational elasticity. This suggests that the father’s effect may be weakening across generations. It is notable that our conclusions held after passing a series of robustness checks.

Keywords: Gender inequality, Intergenerational social mobility, Occupational prestige, Fathers’ influence