Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In the closing pages of The Political Character of Adolescence, Jennings and Niemi (1972, 329) state that “both family and school have a significant enough impact on pre-adult political development that each must be examined in meticulous detail.” The volumes of literature on the relationship among education, political socialization, and participation partially answer this call, but intensive studies on the formative influence of families are largely confined only to the intersection of work in sociology and political psychology. Drawing on work in sociology, psychology and economics, I grapple with the complex interactions between family influence and education and their individual and combined effects on subsequent political participation and attitude formation. I place particular emphasis on innovative methods developed by labor economists that enable the isolation of family influence from educational influence in examining future life outcomes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: I argue that the observed relationship between earnings and highest level of completed education is due in large part to selection effects. I develop a model of the relationship between pre-education human capital and educational attainment, and apply the model to a simple empirical problem.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper addresses Grusky and Sorenson’s (1998) challenge to salvage class analysis by investigating differences between the industrial and postindustrial class structures. In contrast to occupational-based models of class, I employ a more Marxist model based around the exploitation of rent-generating class resources. Beginning from the product characteristics framework, I develop hypotheses about changes in the exploitative value of class resources as the US economy turns from goods production to service production. Empirical analyses compare national-level data from the 1960 PUMS and the 2001 CPS to investigate shifts in the class structure during this period. Results demonstrate that while traditional class relations remain salient, the class structure has nonetheless been altered. Income attainment becomes less dependent on the traditional owner/worker schism, but exploitation becomes increasingly dependent. Classes with authority assets become less likely to exploit, while skill resources become a more potent form of exploitation. Professionalization, unionization, and government employment all prove to be additional resources around which the class structure is built. These class resources prove particularly critical in their capacity to shelter groups of workers from the yoke of exploitation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Using the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS 88:00 restricted), this paper examines patterns of educational attainment by race for a sample that is six years beyond scheduled high school graduation. This recently released data set allows us to examine not only whether and where students attended college but also to chart their patterns of college completion and access to graduate and professional programs. We focus on Asian-Americans (famously characterized by Hirschman and Wong (1986) as having “extraordinary educational attainment”) in this paper and attempt to understand the sources of difference in attainment among Asian-Americans and between Asian-Americans and whites, African-Americans, Latinos, and Native-Americans. Using a new measure of cultural capital developed from the NELS data, we examine what role cultural capital plays in educational attainment, net of other demographic and socioeconomic resources. Further, for those who attend college, we look for interactions between cultural capital and higher education institutional effects on college completion and graduate/professional school attendance.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract:  Previous studies have demonstrated a clear linkage between the familial context and the occupational aspirations of children, yet comparatively few have sought to examine how family characteristics affect the eventual occupational attainment of young adults. Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (1988-2000), this study focuses on the gendered nature of family characteristics on the occupational selection of females and males in their early adult lives. Overall, females are more likely to attain a professional job, while
males are more likely to attain a service or semi-skilled job. Family characteristics (e.g., parental education, number of siblings) appear to affect females and males in a similar manner, yet there is also clear evidence of same-sex parent-child influence. Males appear to be more readily affected by their peer relationships than are females. The implications of these findings are discussed.