Legacies of the past: social origin, educational attainment and labour-market outcomes in Germany

Abstract

This chapter studies the associations among social origin, educational attainment and labour-market outcomes in Germany for cohorts born between 1947 and 1984. Our analysis adds to a large body of studies on social mobility in Germany (e.g. Breen and Luijkx 2007; Grätz 2011; Ishida et al. 1995; Mayer and Aisenbrey 2007; Müller and Pollak 2004). Apart from including data on cohorts younger than those of previous studies, we make two particular contributions to the literature. First, we concentrate on that part of the association between social origin and labour-market outcomes which remains after introducing controls for educational attainment. Like the rest of this book, this chapter focuses on this ‘direct path’ in the social origin–education–destination (OED) triangle, which has not been the major concern of previous studies (see the Introduction to this book). Second, we include in the analysis data on respondents who lived in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in addition to data on respondents who lived in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). On the one hand, earlier research on social mobility in Germany has mainly concentrated on respondents who lived in the FRG before 1989 (Breen and Lujikx 2007; Ishida et al. 1995; Mayer and Aisenbrey 2007; Müller and Pollak 2004).