Cross-National Variation in Occupational Distributions, Relative Mobility Chances, and Intergenerational Shifts in Occupational Distributions

Abstract

Krauze and Slomczynski (1986a) have proposed a non-negative decomposition of observed frequencies in a social mobility classification into "circulation" and "structural" components. In the present paper, we show that the Krauze-Slomczynski decomposition fails to satisfy minimal methodological requirements for cross-national comparisons. We explain why this decomposition cannot be used to test the Featherman-Jones-Hauser hypothesis of cross-national similarity in relative mobility chances. We also identify several questionable procedures in the empirical work of Slomczynski and Krauze (1987) and show how these procedures have affected their conclusions. In the second part of our paper, we discuss some advantages of the recently proposed Sobel-Hout-Duncan model in partitioning marginal effects in a mobility classification and use this model to embed the explanation of marginal effects in an illustrative analysis of cross-national variation in patterns of mobility. The results suggest that both economic and political development can reduce the strength of symmetric interactions between occupational origins and destinations. In addition, economic development increases asymmetric flows by upgrading and reshaping the occupational structure, whereas political development produces a net slowdown in some types of structurally induced mobility.