Perceived economic inequality has consequences for political, social, and health outcomes, making it important to understand how it varies over time and what drives it. We address two underexamined questions. First, little is known about how perceived inequality changes during periods of acute economic disruption. We address this question by examining how perceived inequality changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, a period marked by high inflation and cost of living pressures. Second, while prior research has established SES as a key structural determinant of perceived inequality, the mechanisms are underexamined. We advance this research by identifying mechanisms among the SES components and through proximal structural experiences: Job conditions and financial strain. Our analysis of national data from 2019 to 2025 reveals that perceived inequality increased non-linearly: It remained stable from 2019 to 2022, increased in 2023, and remained stable thereafter. The increase was partly due to the growing share of Canadians reporting worsening costs of living, although a significant portion of the trend remained unexplained. Regarding structural determinants, we replicate prior evidence of SES effects and clarify the pathways by which education, occupation, and income shape perceived inequality. Furthermore, we elaborate on the SES effects by identifying the key explanatory role of financial strain. Collectively, these findings reveal how levels of perceived inequality shifted during the pandemic in Canada and advance understanding of the structural determinants of perceived inequality.
Persistent gender inequality in the intra-couple division of unpaid work has directed attention to life-course events that might challenge it—among them retirement, which alters individuals’ time availability, daily routines, and social roles. Prior research on housework around retirement has largely neglected heterogeneity by breadwinning arrangements, a theoretically salient dimension for assessing the roles of relative economic resources and gender dynamics in the within-couple division of unpaid work. Drawing on panel data for the United Kingdom from the BHPS and UKHLS (1992–2025; 15,747 individuals, 50,237 observations, 2,117 retirement transitions), we examine changes in routine housework around retirement across different breadwinning arrangements. Using a dummy impact function approach, we assess whether and how the absolute and relative contributions to housework of men and women in different-sex couples change around an individual’s own or their partner’s retirement. Across breadwinning arrangements, continuity in gender inequality prevails: both partners adjust their housework around retirement, yet the female share never approaches parity. Relative economic resources shape these adjustments more clearly among women than among men, and signs of gender deviance neutralization and further gender divergence appear in female-breadwinner households. Gendered change, rather than an absence of change, appears to drive continuity in gender inequality.
In ageing societies, the rising share of older adults places significant care burdens on family members. While much research addresses informal caregiving, the role of social inequality remains insufficiently theorized and empirically unpacked across its multiple dimensions. This article examines how socioeconomic status (SES) shapes exposure to caregiving, as well as the occurrence, intensity, type, and living arrangements of care provided to older parents and parents-in-law among European women. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, 2004–2022), we show that higher-SES women are more likely to have surviving parents and, conditional on this, are more likely to provide sporadic and weekly care. This positive gradient is observed across different types of support—personal care, household help, and paperwork help. By contrast, no clear gradient emerges for more intensive daily care, and co-residence is somewhat more concentrated among lower-SES women. Parental education plays a more limited direct role than respondents’ own education and income. Overall, the findings show that caregiving is not structured along a single socioeconomic gradient, but may reflect multiple mechanisms related to differential exposure, norms and expectations, resources, opportunity costs, and access to public services or market substitutes.
Debates over occupational prestige have long centred on what existing prestige scales actually measure and whether prestige constitutes a single evaluative hierarchy or multiple distinct dimensions. This paper contributes to these debates both conceptually and methodologically by examining the dimensionality of occupational prestige as represented in the semantic associations learned by Large Language Models (LLMs) from human text. Using pairwise comparisons across a representative list of occupations, we prompt multiple LLMs to generate rankings along five scales: status, prestige, social standing, expected deference, and an entirely novel dimension based on advertised social proximity (as an indicator of status-related associational preference bias).We show that status, prestige, and social standing are empirically indistinguishable in the models’ associative structure, forming a unified hierarchy closely aligned with established survey-based prestige scales. By contrast, deference and advertised proximity emerge as clearly separable dimensions. Further analyses demonstrate that these dimensions are differentially related to associations the models hold about occupational characteristics such as training and pay, authority, and social contribution. Substantively, the findings support a multidimensional conception of occupational prestige as represented in LLMs’ associative structure – and specifically suggest advertised social proximity as a novel, unexplored dimension. Methodologically, we demonstrate – while recognising their limitations – the value of LLM-based approaches as a complement to human research for exploring complex evaluative structures that are difficult to measure using conventional survey methods.
This study examines how a national reform introducing universal free preschool education affected fertility behavior in Israel, a high-income country with persistently high fertility rates. The 2012 reform expanded public funding to cover preschool costs for all children aged three and four, eliminating tuition fees for both public and licensed private providers during core hours. Using longitudinal administrative birth records covering approximately one million mothers, we exploit the staggered rollout and age-based eligibility rules as sources of quasi-experimental variation. We employ a difference-in-differences design to estimate discrete-time event-history models of progression to second, third, fourth, and fifth births. The reform increased birth probabilities, particularly among families with a child newly eligible for subsidized preschool. Among low-income households, increases were concentrated in higher-parity births (third, fourth, and fifth), whereas among higher-income families the largest response occurred in the annual probability of progression to a second birth. For families whose youngest child was just beyond the eligibility threshold, fertility responses were substantially smaller across income groups. These findings show that universal in-kind childcare subsidies can reshape parity progression across the income distribution even in a context of above-replacement fertility, highlighting how reductions in early childrearing costs affect parity progression and, for some groups, completed family size.
This article examines poverty boundary judgments as a core component of subjective inequality: the classificatory line citizens draw between “the poor” and “the non-poor.” Using the 2022 British Social Attitudes survey (N = 2,642), it examines whether political ideology is associated with where citizens apply the poverty label, and whether these boundary judgments account for part of the ideological association with perceived poverty levels and change. The analysis uses three BSA poverty-boundary items conventionally interpreted as relative-definition, minimum-standard, and absolute-want items. Right-leaning and welfare-sceptical orientations are associated with systematically narrower boundaries, with the steepest ideological gradient for the BSA relative-definition item. Poverty-boundary judgments are strongly associated with perceptions of current poverty and with assessments of past and future trends, and they account for part of the association between ideology and these evaluations under a theoretically assumed ordering. The findings show that disagreement about poverty is not only disagreement about facts or policy, but also about the classificatory boundaries through which citizens recognize social inequality.
In contexts of near-universal access to early childhood care and education (ECCE), socioeconomic inequality may take forms that extend beyond institutional participation. Focusing on preschool-aged children (3–5 years) in Hangzhou, China, this study examines income-related disparities in developmental delay risk and whether participation in market-based enrichment activities (EAs) is associated with these disparities. Using data from the Survey of Early Education, Development and Strengths (SEEDS) and applying a Recentered Influence Function (RIF) approach, we find that developmental delay is concentrated among lower-income children across all five domains, while EA participation is significantly associated with larger income-related inequality in communication, fine motor, and problem-solving delay. These findings suggest that, under widespread preschool access, socioeconomic differences are associated less with enrollment itself than with differential engagement in supplementary market-based resources. By introducing a market-based perspective on early childhood inequality, this study contributes to research on social stratification in contexts of expanding preschool provision.
We reconstruct the kinship network of Poland’s social elite over two centuries. Using genealogical data for more than 1.2 million individuals, we trace kinship links up to the sixth degree. We show that estimates based solely on direct parent–child ties strongly understate elite persistence. Mobility was low and largely unchanged until World War I, then rose gradually over the 20th century. Patterns of family formation strongly shaped the persistence of status: marriage was pivotal, and maternal lineages mattered as much as paternal ones. Our findings indicate that social mobility is a multigenerational process. High society was not a set of isolated dynasties but a dense web of interlocking families, in which weak ties and extended kinship networks were crucial for the reproduction of status.
Cousin correlations are often interpreted as evidence that family influence extends beyond two generations. Lundberg (2020), however, showed that such correlations can be fully consistent with a first-order Markov process once measurement error is taken into account, without requiring any direct role of grandparents or extended family. This article provides a direct empirical test of Lundberg’s framework using three-generation data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Surveys (NLSY79 and the Child and Young Adult sample). Unlike prior studies, I estimate all of the key correlations needed for the test: sibling correlations in both the parent and child generations as well as cousin correlations in the child generation. These estimates, together with established reliabilities of educational attainment, yield a model-implied cousin correlation that can be directly compared to the observed value. The results show that cousin similarities in education are fully accounted for by a dynamic first-order process: transmission from grandparents to parents was stronger than from parents to children. Once this variation in transmission strength and measurement error are incorporated, the model reproduces the observed cousin correlations, leaving little scope for any residual extended-family effect. This conclusion also holds in race-specific analyses, despite higher cousin correlations among White respondents than Black respondents. I discuss the implications of these findings for research on multigenerational mobility and the interpretation of extended-family effects.
Theories of equality of opportunity disagree about which factors affecting life chances are considered unjust. We distinguish between liberal inequality of opportunity, which considers the impact of ascribed characteristics such as gender, immigrant background, and social origin on life chances to be unjust, and radical inequality of opportunity, which additionally considers the effects of skills on life chances to be unjust, on the grounds that skills are themselves shaped by circumstances beyond individual control. Using data from 25 countries in the 2022/23 PIAAC survey, we test whether liberal inequality of opportunity, measured as the variance explained by ascribed characteristics, varies more across countries than radical inequality of opportunity, measured as the variance explained by ascribed characteristics and skills. We further test whether either conception is associated with a country’s level of income inequality, a relationship known as the Great Gatsby Curve (GGC). Contrary to our expectations, radical inequality of opportunity varies more across countries than liberal inequality of opportunity, and neither conception is associated with income inequality. These results indicate that the cross-national picture of inequality of opportunity depends on the conception adopted, and that the GGC holds for neither conception in our data.
Women’s overall advantage in higher education relative to men is a striking anomaly in the broader context of social and economic gender inequalities. This asymmetry between women’s educational advantages and broader disadvantages translates into gender status beliefs and economic factors that could shape gendered postsecondary choices in either men- or women-favorable directions. Joining research on the secondary effects of social origin with literature on broader gender inequalities and the social psychology of gender, we investigate gender differences in first postsecondary destinations among U.S. high school students whose pre-college backgrounds are associated with similar chances of earning a bachelor’s degree. Using nationally representative data (ELS:2002), we find that the existence and direction of gendered postsecondary destinations vary by social background and predicted dropout risk. Among students whose parents attended a four-year college, we document men-favorable four-year college-going on what we call “the favorable side of uncertainty,” where predicted chances of degree completion are generally favorable but highly uncertain. Among potential first-generation college-goers, we find women-favorable patterns at high predicted dropout risk, where women are more likely to attend two-year colleges than men, who instead are more likely to forgo college altogether. Overall, we show that gender gaps in first postsecondary destinations widen, narrow, or reverse depending on students’ social origin and estimated chances of four-year dropout.
As tertiary education expands, horizontal differentiation among college graduates, particularly in institutional selectivity and field of study, becomes increasingly consequential, yet has received far less attention than vertical educational gradients in research on family formation. Using data from two nationally representative cohorts in the Korea Education and Employment Panel who came of age during South Korea's rapid higher-education expansion and the onset of its ultra-low fertility era, we examine how family formation outcomes (marriage, parenthood, number of children, and partner selection) vary by institutional selectivity and field of study by ages 30-33 (N = 3150). The results reveal strongly gendered patterns of family formation. Among women, by their early thirties, graduates of highly selective universities are not significantly less likely to marry, but they have fewer children, and, among those who marry, are less likely to marry down educationally. Among men, by contrast, family formation is more strongly tied to field of study: graduates in occupationally linked fields such as medicine and education are more likely to have married and become parents by their early thirties. These findings indicate that, in the early stage of adulthood, horizontal stratification within higher education differentiates not whether women enter family formation but the kind of family formation they experience, contributing to gendered inequalities that may represent an underappreciated pathway linking educational expansion to emerging patterns of fertility decline.
In the German vocational education and training (VET) system, female apprentices are strongly underrepresented in STEM professions, where there is also a general shortage of skilled workers. In this study, we look at whether a vocational role model intervention of apprentices visiting schools could reduce gender differences in students' aspirations toward VET STEM professions and change their gendered perception of these occupations in terms of their occupational knowledge, self-efficacy, and perception of tasks as interesting. Based on a regional sample of male and female secondary school students in Germany surveyed in 2022 and 2023, our results indicate that students still hold gendered career aspirations, self-efficacy, and knowledge with respect to STEM VET occupations. Based on a non-equivalent control group design, we find that the role model intervention with mainly male role models can reduce these gendered perceptions to some extent, with female students developing greater occupational knowledge and higher career aspirations. These findings suggest that real-life vocational role models can serve as a promising career orientation approach in the context of VET to reduce gendered perceptions and aspirations in the career choice process.
Social disparities in educational decision-making are a well-known factor in the intergenerational reproduction of inequality. While existing research has emphasized differences in resources, expectations, and perceived risks, less attention has been paid to how interactions between families and schools shape these choices. This study examines the role of educational guidance practitioners in the reproduction of social inequality during the transition from lower-to upper-secondary education in Italy, a context characterized by a highly stratified school system and non-binding track recommendations. Using a unique longitudinal administrative dataset from the city of Turin that follows 6268 students from grade 7 to grade 9, we analyze the sequence linking students' track intentions, guidance recommendations, final choices, and subsequent outcomes. Our results show that track recommendations-which, in our context, are jointly developed by teachers and guidance practitioners-are not overtly biased in favor of high-SES students. However, recommendations for academic tracks de facto require strong achievement records and explicit academic aspirations, which disproportionately holds back academically promising low-SES students. Simultaneously, resistance to undesired recommendations is higher among high-SES students. The study thus identifies an implicit mechanism through which educational guidance, despite its supportive intent, exacerbates inequalities in track choices and underscores the need for guidance policies that critically account for the social embeddedness of educational aspirations.
Overqualification is one of the key labor market disadvantages that the children of immigrants born in the host society—the second-generation (G2)—disproportionately experience compared to the majority population. A higher prevalence of overqualification among the G2 may result from their strategic choice to circumvent persistent unemployment but also from the use of overqualification as a stepping stone into adequate employment —as predicted by career mobility theory. In light of this consideration, our paper investigates 1) to what extent overqualification and unemployment differently lead to career progression into adequately matched employment and 2) how this varies between the second-generation and majority populations. This study draws on Swedish register data on the total population and applies dynamic correlated random-effects multinomial logistic models to investigate year-to-year transitions across labor market states. Our results show that the chances of moving to adequate employment are higher for unemployed individuals than for overqualified workers. This result, which holds for both the majority population and G2 groups, is against the idea that overqualification serves as a stepping stone. We find that the chances of transitioning from overqualification and unemployment to adequate employment are higher for the majority population compared to most G2 groups. Although not the main focus of this paper, our analysis also provides evidence of higher risks for G2 overqualified workers to become unemployed and for G2 unemployed individuals to remain entrapped in unemployment. Together, these findings indicate a vicious cycle of career disadvantages for the G2.
Occupations with a higher percent of women pay less than occupations with a lower percent of women. One explanation for this difference is the devaluation hypothesis: the idea that occupations with more women are devalued because of the relatively high percentage of women working in the occupations. Decades of research, using observational data from national surveys, find support for the hypothesis. A limitation of this previous research is the potential for omitted variable bias. That is, observational data cannot rule out the possibility that there might be a third factor which causes both a higher percent of women in occupations and lower pay for occupations. In this paper, we employ an experimental design, using nationally representative survey data, to address this limitation. We use random assignment to condition because it can be used to specify a causal mechanism—i.e., to investigate whether percent women in an occupation can cause lower wages. We find that when presented with an occupation with a high percent of women, respondents suggest lower pay for that occupation, as compared to when respondents are presented with a mixed occupation or an occupation with a high percent of men. We also test whether random assignment to gender composition of occupation can affect perceptions of workers’ characteristics in that occupation. We find little evidence of such an effect.
Despite considerable changes in recent decades, women and men still have different careers, fostering gender inequality in paid work. Women work more often part-time and have more care obligations, which are typically regarded as incongruent with leadership roles and might lead to career penalties. We investigate employers' gender-related promotion preferences. Using a large factorial survey experiment across organizations in Germany enables us to disentangle employer preferences regarding gender from their promotion preferences on employees' working time and care obligations. We find career penalties for working part-time as well as having care obligations, instead of gender as such. Work-family policies do not appear to equalize the promotion probability between employees having care obligations and those without any care obligations. These findings reflect the impact of gender inequality in the household on the career opportunities of women. They suggest that the lower promotion chances for women compared to men that are observed in practice are due to unequal distributions of care obligations and working part-time.
Individuals with disabilities and people with a history of justice interaction each face substantial barriers to employment. These populations also significantly overlap, with two-thirds of individuals in federal or state prisons reporting at least one disability. Studies qualitatively explore how justice-impacted individuals with disabilities (JIID) face compounded labor market disadvantages, often shaped by race and gender. However, there has been little effort to quantify this disadvantage robustly. Our study addresses this gap by analyzing data from two national datasets, the Rehabilitation Services Administration Case Service Report (RSA-911) and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), to examine employment outcomes of JIID and non-JIID individuals, stratified by race and gender. Consistent with prior research, our findings suggest that over one fourth (26%) of people with disabilities experience some type of justice interaction. In terms of employment, using the NSDUH data, we found that 43% of justice-impacted individuals with disabilities were employed, compared with 51% of non-justice-impacted individuals with disabilities. Analysis from both the RSA-911 and the NSDUH indicate that JIID employment rates vary by gender and race/ethnicity, with JIID women having lower rates than men, and Black JIID having the lowest employment rates of any racial/ethnic subgroup. Overall, our findings underscore that JIID are far from a homogeneous group, particularly with respect to employment, highlighting the need for more intersectional research and targeted policies that account for subgroup differences.
