Family Change, Employment Transitions, and the Welfare State: Household Income Dynamics in the United States and Germany

By Thomas A. DiPrete, P. McManus. American Sociological Review, 2000

256 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Since the demise of modernization theory, social scientists have sought explanations for persisting differences in the stratification of industrialized societies, primarily by studying how educational and labor market institutions shape the life chances of individuals. This approach undervalues two key features of any stratification system: family dynamics and the welfare state. Employment changes, changes in household composition, and changes in the employment situation of a spouse or partner can all trigger large shifts in income and material well-being. The impact of these events is mediated by public tax and transfer mechanisms and by private actions taken by household members. This comparative analysis of household income dynamics in the United States and Germany shows that variations in welfare state policy produce distinct societal patterns of income mobility, and furthermore, shows that the relative importance of labor market events, family change, and welfare state policies for income dynamics depends on gender. The strong interrelationship between individual incentives and the structure of opportunity produces an asymmetry in the long-term impact of events. The negative effects of events that reduce income generally decay over time, while the effects of positive events generally persist.

Subfields: Gender Studies, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/54d53357d4d05931826ab9a9e82fbd9b5fb33ad0

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Citations in the corpus

Economic Insecurity and Social Stratification (2012, background): “[DiPrete’s (2002, DiPrete & McManus 2000) work represents an important exception, combining information on income dynamics, employment, and family structure.]”
Value Creation, Appropriation, and Distribution: How Firms Contribute to Societal Economic Inequality (2018, background): “Such actions protect against long-term disadvantages stemming from poverty and income shortfalls, and allow for upward mobility (DiPrete & McManus, 2000; Kenworthy, 1999).”
Decommodification and activation in social democratic policy: resolving the paradox (2008, background): “Institutionalist work in the comparative sociology of labour markets and mobility regimes (DiPrete and McManus, 2000; DiPrete, 2002; Gangl, 2004) on the ‘scar effects’ of unemployment spells on individual life courses indicates that high replacement rates do not simply result in upskilling of…”
Time to Work: (2003, background): “To date, however, only a few studies have attempted to systematically address the social and cultural embeddedness of women’s (and men’s) employment decisions (for recent exceptions, see Charles, Buchmann, Halebsky, Powers, & Smith, 2001; Diprete & McManus, 2000).”
Privatizing Risk without Privatizing the Welfare State: The Hidden Politics of Social Policy Retrenchment in the United States (2004, background): “Foremost among the economic changes is a major transformation in the employment opportunities and 9 In response, some scholars have turned to panel studies of income (Burkhauser and Duncan 1991, DiPrete and McManus 2000, and Goodin et al. 1999).”
Scar Effects of Unemployment: An Assessment of Institutional Complementarities (2006, background): “…links between institutions and income inequality (Gottschalk and Smeeding 1997), poverty dynamics (Goodin et al. 1999), income trajectories (DiPrete and McManus 1996, 2000; Gangl 2005), patterns of labor market mobility (e.g., DiPrete et al. 1997), and life courses (e.g., DiPrete 2002;…”
Putting Poverty in Political Context: A Multi-Level Analysis of Adult Poverty across 18 Affluent Democracies (2009, background): “Other events often considered “risks” include becoming a mother – particularly a single mother – growing old, being disabled or experiencing a family transition such as divorce (DiPrete and McManus 2000).”
Welfare States and the Scar Effects of Unemployment: A Comparative Analysis of the United States and West Germany1 (2004, background): “…mobility regimes on individual life courses, work histories, income, and career trajectories (e.g., Fritzell 1990; Kerckhoff 1995; Gallie and Paugam 2000; Stier, LewinEpstein, and Braun 2001; DiPrete and McManus 1996, 2000; DiPrete 2002; DiPrete et al. 1997, 2001; McManus and DiPrete 2000).”