Robert M. Hauser, University of Wisconsin

Ability and the American Dream: Has Anything Changed?

Thursday, April 3 at 7:30pm in Physics-Astronomy A110

This talk will combine an overview of concepts and methods of studying intergenerational occupational stratification with a review of trends in social stratification among blacks and whites, the role of cognitive ability in stratification, and putative trends in the causes and consequences of cognitive ability. The presentation draws on the tradition of causal modeling of processes of social stratification that began with the work of Otis Dudley Duncan and Robert W. Hodge, but is more widely associated with the later work of Duncan with Peter Blau.

The talk will draw in part on three working papers that are on-line:

Robert M. Hauser and Min-Hsiung Huang. Trends in Black-White Test Score Differentials. IRP Discussion Paper 1110-96.

Robert M. Hauser and John Robert Warren. Socioeconomic Indexes for Occupations: A Review, Update, and Critique. CDE Working Paper 96-01. (Links to indexes as well as to the paper.)

Robert M. Hauser, John Robert Warren, Min-Hsiung Huang, and Wendy Y. Carter. Occupational Status, Education, and Social Mobility in the Meritocracy. CDE Working Paper 96-18.

This talk will draw on several bodies of data that are in the public domain:

1962 and 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation Surveys

NORC General Social Survey

Survey of Income and Program Participation

Wisconsin Longitudinal Study