Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
职业晋升中的阶级差距：来自美国学术界的证据
The Class Gap in Career Progression: Evidence From U.S. Academia
摘要
Unlike gender or race, class background is rarely a focus of research on career progression, or of DEI efforts in elite occupations. Should it be? In this paper, we document a large class gap in career progression in one occupation—U.S. tenure‐track academia—using parental education to proxy for class background. First‐generation college graduates are 10% less likely to be tenured at an R1, are tenured at institutions ranked 11% lower, earn 3% less, and report 5% lower job satisfaction, than their former PhD classmates (from the same institution and field) with a parent with a non‐PhD graduate degree. Neither selection out of academia nor different preferences explain this gap; differential research productivity also plays little role. Instead, likely drivers are differences in cultural and social capital. We also find a class gap in career progression for PhDs who work in industry, suggesting this phenomenon generalizes outside academia.
中文摘要
与性别或种族不同，阶级背景很少成为职业发展研究或精英职业领域多元化、公平与包容（DEI）举措的关注焦点。那么，它是否应该被重视？本文以美国终身教职制学术界这一职业为例，利用父母教育程度作为阶级背景的代理变量，揭示了职业发展中的显著阶级差距。与父母拥有非博士研究生学位的同届博士同学（来自同一院校和领域）相比，第一代大学毕业生在R1研究型大学获得终身教职的可能性低10%，其任职院校排名低11%，收入少3%，且工作满意度低5%。这一差距既非源于学术界的选择性退出，也非偏好差异所致；研究生产力的差异同样作用甚微。相反，文化资本和社会资本的差异是可能的驱动因素。此外，我们发现在产业界工作的博士群体中也存在职业发展的阶级差距，这表明该现象具有超越学术界的普遍性。