Jani Erola, Turku School of Economics

Determinants of class in Finland - parental class or parental income or educational choices?

The paper compares three structural mechanisms related to intergenerational inheritance of social status. In the sociological studies on social mobility one has usually analysed only the effect of parental class and educational choices on the class status of the children. In the economics the main emphasis has been put on the correlation or elasticity in income between two consequent generations. However, it is not rare to find the sociological analyses speculating about the effect of the parental monetary resources on social class. Similarly, the economists usually assume the income to be straightforwardly a sign of social status.

In this paper the effect of parental income on class is being combined to the analysis of the intergenerational class mobility and education. The determinants of the class of 31-45 years old Finns in 1985, 1999, 1995 and 2000 are being analysed with statistical models using Finnish Longitudinal Census Sample Data. Men and women are being modelled separately. The effects of parental income and parental class appear to be surprisingly similar as the determinants of the class of children especially in the case of men.