MODELS FOR EDUCATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT OVER TIME.

Following Sørensen (1974), this paper formulates two models for the process of occupational achievement over time. Unlike Sørensen, this paper considers models which explicitly include the effects of changes in education on changes in occupational achievement; that is, the models do not assume that resources are stable over the career. The first model uses data on educational and occupational attainment at two points in time to examine how changes in education affect the time path of occupation. The model is estimated by the inclusion of an adjustment mechanism in the form of educational aspirations and requires a distributed lag approach. After assuming that the system is "meritocratic," i.e. that changes in educational level translate directly into occupational achievement, the empirical results (based on a French mobility survey) demonstrate the adjustment mechanism quite effectively. The second model assumes simultaneity of effects between education and occupation and allows an estimate of the extent to which the time paths (rates of change over time) of education and occupation are stable. Sørensen found that the growth rate in occupation did not change over time, but the somewhat more complex model used here (again based on French mobility data) suggests that there is a slight increase in rates of change for both education and occupation over time. The results also suggest that the higher the level of one's education, the greater the gain in occupation status over time and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]