THE COMPARATIVE MEASURENT OF

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION INDICATORS

 

Mini-Course

 

Harry B.G. Ganzeboom

University of Tallinn, November 17-19 2010

 

Education, occupation and income are the most frequently used indicators of social stratification. Their comparative measurement – both between countries and between times – is vexed with methodological problems. How can we ascertain comparability of measurement in large-scale repeated cross-national surveys such as the European Social Survey or the International Social Survey Programme?  In this three-day mini-course I discuss and show how standard classifications, scaling methods, standardization and multiple measurement models can be used to achieve comparability.

 

The course will consist of six 2-hour lectures (morning 10:00-12:00, afternoon 16:00-18:00). Students prepare the lectures using the associated readings and by submitting by email (brief) questions of information about truly unclear issues, critical remarks and interesting comments. The quality of the submitted questions will be used in the grading of the student’s participation, and will have to show that you have come to the lectures seriously prepared. It is allowed to ask questions for further information, as long as the question formulation shows that you have read and tried to understand the readings. Each student has to submit six questions of max. 200 words.

 

 

Lecture 1: The status attainment model

 

  • The process of stratification

 

  • Causal models (direct, indirect and confounding effects)

 

  • Multiple indicator measurement models

 

Readings:

 

Blau, Peter M. & Otis D. Duncan (1967), “The Process of Stratification [fragment]”

 

Ganzeboom, Harry B.G.; Treiman, Donald J.; Ultee, Wout C. (1991). "Comparative Intergenerational Mobility Research - Three Generations and Beyond", Annual Review of Sociology (17), pp. 277-302.

 

Hout, Michael & Thomas DiPrete (2006) “What we have learned: RC28’s contributions

to knowledge about social stratification“. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (24), 1-20.

 

 

Lecture 2: Measuring occupational status

 

  • Occupational classifications: ISCO-88

 

  • Continuous measures of occupational status: prestige, socio-economic status, social distance

 

Readings:

 

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco/index.htm

 

Introduction and overview ISCO-88 manual

 

Ganzeboom, Harry B.G.; Treiman, Donald J. (2003). "Three Internationally Standardised Measures for Comparative Research on Occupational Status." Pp. 159-193 in Jürgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik & Christof Wolf (Eds.), Advances in Cross-National Comparison. A European Working Book for Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables. New York: Kluwer Academic Press.

Ganzeboom, Harry B.G.; De Graaf, Paul; Treiman, Donald J.; (with De Leeuw, Jan) (1992). "A Standard International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status", Social Science Research (21-1), pp. 1-56.

 

 

Lecture 3: Occupation coding

 

  • Principles of occupation coding

 

  • Inter-code consistency

 

  • Application: Occupations in the Estonian ESS

 

Readings:

 

Ganzeboom, Harry B.G. “Do’s and Donts of Occupation Coding”. Paper first presented ISSP Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 2008. Last revision September 2010.

 

 

Lecture 4: Social Classes

 

  • Discrete measures of occupational status: social classes

 

  • Loglinear models, multinomial logit models, conditional logit models

 

Readings: 

 

Rose, David; Eric Harrison (2007). “The European Socio-Economic Classification. A new social class schema for comparative European research.”  European Societies (9,3), 459-490.

 

Dessens, Jos A.G.; Jansen, Wim; Ganzeboom, Harry B.G.; Van der Heijden, Peter G.M. (2003). "Pattern and Trends in Occupational Attainment in First Jobs in the Netherlands, 1930-1995: OLS Regression versus. Conditional Multinomial Logistic Regression". In: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, (168, Part 1), pp. 63-84.

 

Lecture 5: Measuring and modeling level of education

 

  • Education systems

 

  • ISCED: The International Standard Classification of Education

 

  • Optimal scaling: ISLED

 

  • The Estonian case

 

Readings:

 

Schroeder, Heike & Harry B.G. Ganzeboom (2010) Measuring and Modeling the Level of Education. Paper, Last revised 2010.

 

Schneider, Silke (2010). Nominal comparability is not enough: (In-)equivalence of construct validity of cross-national measures of educational attainment in the European Social Survey. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.

 

Estonian questionnaires at:

http://ess.nsd.uib.no/ess/round3/fieldwork/Estonia (kaart 48)

http://ess.nsd.uib.no/ess/round4/fieldwork/Estonia (kaart 67)

 

 

Lecture 6: Measuring and modeling income

 

  • Measurement of income

 

  • Scaling and modeling income

 

Readings:

 

Warner, U. & J.H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik & Warner, “How to measure income?” Ch. 17 in Jürgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik & Christof Wolf (Eds.), Advances in Cross-National Comparison. A European Working Book for Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables. New York: Kluwer Academic Press.

 

Holst, Chr. “The validity of income measurements in comparative perspective. Non-responses and biases” Ch. 20 in Jürgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik & Christof Wolf (Eds.), Advances in Cross-National Comparison. A European Working Book for Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables. New York: Kluwer Academic Press.