Changes in Social Mobility of East and West German Men

• In Event: 528 - Regular Session. Social Mobility: Patterns and Mechanisms

Abstract

In Germany inter- and intra-generational social mobility has changed a lot: Germany has experienced an impressive educational expansion across cohorts, an upgrading of the occupational structure, an increasing flexibilization of employment and during the 40 years of separation in Germany until 1990, both parts of Germany differed markedly in their political systems, policies and ideologies which are supposed to have different effects for social mobility in both Germanies – before and even after the reunification.
Using new longitudinal data from the National Educational Panel Study and discrete event history models, I analyze upward, downward and lateral mobility rates of German men, their mobility rates between different labour market segments. My results demonstrate that men’s occupational careers have become more turbulent over time. This might be explained by an increasing deregulation of the German labour market in recent decades. If we focus on upward mobility, East and West German men show similar patterns. However, East German men are more likely to be downward mobile in their careers. Social origin has a strong effect on men’s upward and lateral mobility. If respondents from higher social origin enter into a first job in an external or secondary labour market, they are more likely to move to an internal and primary labour market segment later on in their careers.

Author

• Pia Blossfeld, University of Oxford