Who gets the top jobs? the role of family background and networks in recent graduates' access to high-status professions

Journal of Social Policy

Volumn 44, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 487-515

  Macmillan, Lindsey ^a   Tyler, Claire ^a   Vignoles, Anna ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT; EMPLOYMENT; HIGHER EDUCATION; LABOR MARKET;

EID: 84930377191     PISSN: 00472794     EISSN: 14697823     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0047279414000634     Document Type: Review

References (59)

1. AIR UK (2008), The Involvement of Business in Education: A Rapid Evidence Assessment of Measurable Impacts, Department for Children, Schools and Families, National Centre for Social Research.
2. Association of Graduate Recruiters (2012), Graduate Recruitment Survey 2012, Winter Review.
3. Bentolila, S., Michelacci, C. and Suarez, J. (2010), 'Social contacts and occupational choice', Economica, 77, 20-45.
4. Bingley, P., Corak, M. and Westergard-Nielsen, N. (2011), The Intergenerational Transmission of Employers in Canada and Denmark, IZA Discussion Paper No. 5593
5. Blanden, J., Gregg, P. and Macmillan, L. (2013), 'Intergenerational persistence in income and social class: the impact of within-group inequality', Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Series A: Statistics in Society, 176: 2, 541-63.
6. Blanden, J., Gregg, P. and Macmillan, L. (2007), 'Accounting for intergenerational income persistence: noncognitive skills, ability and education', Economic Journal, 117: C43-C60.
7. Brewer, M., Dickerson, A., Gambin, L., Green, A., Joyce, R. and Wilson, R. (2012), Poverty and Inequality in 2020: Impact of Changes in the Structure of Employment, London: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
8. Bukodi, E. and J. H. Goldthorpe. (2011a), 'Class origins, education and occupational attainment in Britain', European Societies, 13: 3, 347-75.
9. Bukodi, E. and Goldthorpe, J. H. (2011b), 'Social class returns to higher education: chances of access to the professional and managerial salariat for men in three British birth cohorts', Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 2: 1-71.
10. Bukodi, E., Dex, S. and Goldthorpe, J. H. (2011), 'The conceptualisation and measurement of occupational hierarchies: a review, a proposal and some illustrative analyses', Quality and Quantity, 45: 623-39.
11. Cabinet Office (2009), Unleashing Aspirations: The Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, London: Information Policy Team, Cabinet Office.
12. Cabinet Office (2011), Opening Doors, Breaking Barriers: A Strategy for SocialMobility, London: Information Policy Team, Cabinet Office.
13. Cabinet Office (2012), Fair Access to Professional Careers: A Progress Report by the Independent Reviewer on SocialMobility and Child Poverty, London: Information Policy Team, Cabinet Office.
14. Calvó-Armengol, A. (2004), 'Job contact networks', Journal of Economic Theory, 115: 191-206.
15. Calvó-Armengol, A. (2007), 'Networks in labor markets: wage and employment dynamics and inequality', Journal of Economic Theory, 132: 1, 27-46.
16. Casella, A. and Hanaki, T. (2005), InformationTransmission in LaborMarkets:On theResilience of Personal Referrals, CEPR Discussion Paper no 4969, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
17. Chan and Goldthorpe, (2007), 'Class and status: the conceptual distinction and its empirical relevance', American Sociological Review, 72: 4, 521-32.
18. Chowdry, H., Crawford, C., Dearden, L., Goodman, A. and Vignoles, A. (2012), 'Widening participation in higher education: analysis using linked administrative data', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, 176: 2, 431-57.
19. Coleman, J. S. (1990), Foundations of Social Theory, Cambridge, MA:HarvardUniversity Press.
20. Confederation of British Industry (CBI) (2011), Building for Growth: Business Priorities for Education and Skills - Education and Skills Survey.
21. Corak, M. (2013), 'Income equality, equality of opportunity, and intergenerational mobility', Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27: 3, 79-102.
22. Corak, M. (2006), Do Poor Children Become Poor Adults? Lessons from a Cross Country Comparison of Generational Earnings Mobility, IZA Discussion Paper no. 1993.
23. Corak, M. and Piraino, P. (2010), The Intergenerational Transmission of Employers, IZA Discussion Paper no. 4819
24. Crawford, C., Goodman, A. and Joyce, R. (2010), Explaining the Socio-Economic Gradient in Child Outcomes: The Intergenerational Transmission of Cognitive Skills, London: Institute for Fiscal Studies.
25. Crawford, C., Johnson, P., Machin, S. and Vignoles, A. (2011), Social Mobility: A Literature Review, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
26. Devine, F. and Li, Y. (2013), 'The changing relationship between origins, education and destinations in the 1990s and 2000s', British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34: 5-6, 766-91.
27. Ermisch, J., Jantti, M. and Smeeding, T. (2012), The IntergenerationalTransmissions ofAdvantage, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
28. Francis, A. and Sommerlad, H. (2009), 'Access to legal work experience and its role in the (re)production of legal professional identity', International Journal of the Legal Profession, 16: 1, 71.
29. Goodman, A., Gregg, P. and Washbrook, E. (2011), 'Children's educational attainment and the aspirations, attitudes and behaviours of parents and children through childhood in the UK', Longitudinal and Life Course Studies 2011, 2: 1, 1-18.
30. Goldthorpe, J. and McKnight, A. (2006), 'The economic basis of social class', in S. Morgan, D. B. Grusky and G. S. Fields (eds.), Mobility and Inequality: Frontiers of Research from Sociology and Economics, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 109-36.
31. Granovetter, M. (1973), 'The strength of weak ties', American Journal of Sociology, 78: 1360-80.
32. Granovetter, M. (1974 (1995)), Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers, 1st edn Harvard University Press, 2nd edn 1995, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33. Green, F., Machin, S., Murphy, R. and Zhu, Y. (2012), 'The changing economic advantage from private schools', Economica, 79: 316, 658-79.
34. Gregg, P. and Macmillan, L. (2010), 'Family income, education and cognitive ability in the next generation: exploring income gradients in education and test scores for current cohorts of youth', Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 1: 3, 259-80.
35. Haider, S. and Solon, G. (2006), 'Life-cycle variation in the association between current and lifetime earnings', American Economic Review, 96: 4, 1308-20.
36. HEFCE (2011), Approaches toMeasuring Employment Circumstances of RecentGraduates, Higher Education Funding Council for England.
37. Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) (2009), Technical Report destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) Longitudinal Survey 2004/05, http://www.hesa.ac.uk/dox/dlhe-longitudinal/Second-survey/Longitudinal-DLHE-0809-Technical-Report-FINAL-280709.pdf.
38. Holzer, H. J. (1988), 'Search method use by unemployed youth', Journal of Labor Economics', 6: 1, 1-20.
39. Ioannides, Y. and Loury, L. (2004), 'Job information networks, neighbourhood effects and inequality', Journal of Economic Literature, 42: 4, 1056-93.
40. Jerrim, J. (2012), 'The socio-economic gradient in teenagers' reading skills: how does England compare with other countries?', Fiscal Studies, 33: 2, 159-84.
41. Kemple, J. and Willner, C. (2008), Career Academies Long-Term Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes, EducationalAttainment, and Transitions toAdulthood, ManpowerDevelopment Research Corporation.
42. Kramarz, F. and Skans, O. (2006), 'Nepotism at work? Family networks and youth labour market entry', unpublished manuscript, Symposium of Labor Economics (ESSLE).
43. Langlands, A. (2005), The Gateways to the Professions Report ('The Langlands Report'), Nottingham: DfES.
44. Loury, Glenn C. (1977), 'A dynamic theory of racial income differences', in P. A. Wallace and A. Le Mund (eds.), Women, Minorities and Employment Discrimination, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, Chapter 8.
45. Loury, L. (2006), 'Some contacts are more equal than others: informal networks, job tenure, and wages', Journal of Labor Economics, 24: 2, 299-318.
46. Manning, A. and Swaffield, J. (2008), 'The gender gap in early-career wage growth', The Economic Journal, 118: 983-1024.
47. Marsden, P. and Gorman, E. (2001), 'Social networks, job changes, and recruitment', in Ivar Berg and Ame L. Kalleberg (eds.), Sourcebook of LaborMarkets: Evolving Structure and Processes, New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 467-502.
48. Macmillan, L. (2009), Social Mobility and the Professions, Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol.
49. Mann, A. (2012), It's Who You Meet: Why Employer Contacts at School Make a Difference to the Employment Prospects of Young Adults, London: Education and Employers Taskforce.
50. Montgomery, James D. (1991), 'Social networks and labor-market outcomes: toward an economic analysis', American Economic Review, 81: 5, 1408-18.
51. Neumark, D. and Rothstein, D. (2006), 'School-to-career programmes and transitions to employment and higher education', Economics of Education Review, 25: 374-93.
52. Pellizzari, M. (2004), 'Do friends and relatives really help in getting a good job?', CEPDiscussion Paper no. 623, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
53. Rees, A. (1966), 'Information networks in the labor market, American Economic Review, 56: 2, 559-66.
54. Rivera, L. (2012), 'Hiring as cultural matching: the case of elite professional service firms', American Sociological Review, 77: 6, 999-1022.
55. Rolfe, H. and Anderson, T. (2003), 'A firm choice: law firms' preferences in the recruitment of trainee solicitors', International Journal of the Legal Profession, 10: 3, 315-34.
56. Sutton Trust (2005), The Educational Background of the UK's Top Solicitors, Barristers and Judges. http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/educational-backgrounds-leadingjournalists/ (accessed 1 September 2014).
57. Sutton Trust (2006), The Educational Backgrounds of Leading Journalists. http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/educational-backgrounds-uks-top-solicitors-barristersjudges/ (accessed 1 September 2014).
58. Wilson, R. A. and Homenidou, K. (2011), Working Futures 2010-2020, Evidence Report 41, Wath-upon-Dearne: UK: Commission for Employment and Skills.
59. Wolf, A. (2011), Review of Vocational Education - the Wolf Report, Department for Education Department for Business, Innovation & Skills