This study describes the trends in the effects of social origin on the college opportunity expectations of three cohorts of high school seniors (1972, 1982, and 1992).
Do mass policy preferences influence the policy output of welfare states in developed democracies? This is an important issue for welfare state theory and research, and this article presents an analysis that builds from analytical innovations developed in the emerging literature on linkages between mass opinion and public policy.
Preferences for redistribution may be influenced by values and beliefs about distributive justice as well as by self-interest. People may prefer more redistribution to the poor if they believe that poverty is caused by circumstances beyond individual control. Therefore, beliefs about the causes of income may affect demand for redistribution.
Drawing upon data from a sample of working males aged 21-64 in the metropolitan area of Albany-Troy-Schenectady, New York, we found that the job seeker's personal resources (initially his family background, but more importantly later his educational and occupational achievements) as well as his use of weak ties affect his ability to reach a contact of high status.
We use data from the March 1968-2001 Current Population Surveys to document the evolution of elderly poverty over this time period, and to assess the causal role of the Social Security program in reducing poverty rates.
This paper seeks to show the relationship between stratification and the rest of the social order. The article discusses social inequality and the various factors that give rise to stratification.
Observed human capital explains less than half of wage variation. In BLS Industry Wage Surveys, establishment-based wage differentials (controlling for occupation) account for 20-70 percent of intra-industry wage variation.
In his new book Ronald Dworkin insists that equality is the indispensable virtue of democratic sovereignty. A legitimate government must treat all its citizens as equals, that is, with equal respect and concern, and, since the economic distribution that any society achieves is mainly the consequence of its system of law and policy, that requirement imposes serious egalitarian constraints on that distribution.