IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoedu/v30y2011i3p493-506.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What will I be when I grow up? An analysis of childhood expectations and career outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Brown, Sarah
  • Ortiz-Nuñez, Aurora
  • Taylor, Karl

Abstract

In this paper, we utilise the British National Child Development Study to explore the determinants of career expectations formed at the age of 16. We analyse the influence of careers advice and resources at school on career expectations as well as the influence of education. In addition, we explore the accuracy of occupational expectations as compared to the occupation that the respondents subsequently become employed in. Throughout our findings, human capital and gender play a pivotal role in explaining career expectations as well as explaining the accuracy of the occupational forecast. Interestingly, the level of school resources available for careers guidance in terms of the number of teachers who are qualified to give careers advice and the amount of specific careers guidance training received by these teachers both have relatively small effects upon career expectations.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Sarah & Ortiz-Nuñez, Aurora & Taylor, Karl, 2011. "What will I be when I grow up? An analysis of childhood expectations and career outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 493-506, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:30:y:2011:i:3:p:493-506
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272-7757(10)00168-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Botelho, Anabela & Pinto, Ligia Costa, 2004. "Students' expectations of the economic returns to college education: results of a controlled experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 645-653, December.
    2. Christian Dustmann & Najma Rajah & Arthur van Soest, 2003. "Class Size, Education, and Wages," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 99-120, February.
    3. Denise Hawkes & Ian Plewis, 2006. "Modelling non‐response in the National Child Development Study," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(3), pages 479-491, July.
    4. Das, Marcel & van Soest, Arthur, 1999. "A panel data model for subjective information on household income growth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 409-426, December.
    5. Gupta, Nabanita Datta, 1994. "A specification test of the determinants of male-female occupational differences," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 197-203.
    6. Neumark, David & Rothstein, Donna, 2006. "School-to-career programs and transitions to employment and higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 374-393, August.
    7. Gupta, Nabanita Datta, 1993. "Probabilities of Job Choice and Employer Selection and Male-Female Occupational Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 57-61, May.
    8. McIntosh, James & Munk, Martin D., 2009. "Social class, family background, and intergenerational mobility," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 107-117, January.
    9. Joy, Lois, 2006. "Occupational differences between recent male and female college graduates," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 221-231, April.
    10. Schmidt, Peter & Strauss, Robert P, 1975. "The Prediction of Occupation Using Multiple Logit Models," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 16(2), pages 471-486, June.
    11. Cheti Nicoletti & Marco Francesconi, 2006. "Intergenerational mobility and sample selection in short panels," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(8), pages 1265-1293.
    12. Lorraine Dearden & Javier Ferri & Costas Meghir, 2002. "The Effect Of School Quality On Educational Attainment And Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 1-20, February.
    13. Stephen Nickell, 1982. "The Determinants of Occupational Success in Britain," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(1), pages 43-53.
    14. John Ermisch & Marco Francesconi, 2001. "Family Matters: Impacts of Family Background on Educational Attainments," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(270), pages 137-156, May.
    15. Arnaud Chevalier, 2007. "Education, Occupation and Career Expectations: Determinants of the Gender Pay Gap for UK Graduates," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 819-842, December.
    16. Mayhew, Ken & Rosewell, Bridget, 1981. "Occupational Mobility in Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 43(3), pages 225-255, August.
    17. Charles F. Manski, 2004. "Measuring Expectations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1329-1376, September.
    18. Carvajal, Manuel J. & Bendana, David & Bozorgmanesh, Alireza & Castillo, Miguel A. & Pourmasiha, Katayoun & Rao, Priya & Torres, Juan A., 2000. "Inter-gender differentials between college students' earnings expectations and the experience of recent graduates," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 229-243, June.
    19. Erikson, Robert & Goldthorpe, John H., 2009. "Social class, family background, and intergenerational mobility: A comment on Mcintosh and Munk," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 118-120, January.
    20. Robertson, Donald & Symons, James, 1990. "The Occupational Choice of British Children," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(402), pages 828-841, September.
    21. Ermisch, John & Francesconi, Marco, 2001. "Family Matters: Impacts of Family Background on Educational Attainments," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(270), pages 137-156, May.
    22. Jason Long & Joseph Ferrie, 2007. "The Path to Convergence: Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Britain and the US in Three Eras," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(519), pages 61-71, March.
    23. Sarah Brown & Gaia Garino & Karl Taylor, 2008. "Mortgages and Financial Expectations: A Household-Level Analysis," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(3), pages 857-878, January.
    24. Greenhalgh, Christine A & Stewart, Mark B, 1985. "The Occupational Status and Mobility of British Men and Women," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 40-71, March.
    25. Martyn Andrews & Steve Bradley, 1997. "Modelling the Transition from School and the Demand for Training in the United Kingdom," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 64(255), pages 387-413, August.
    26. Sarah Brown & Gaia Garino & Karl Taylor & Stephen Wheatley Price, 2005. "Debt and Financial Expectations: An Individual- and Household-Level Analysis," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(1), pages 100-120, January.
    27. Boskin, Michael J, 1974. "A Conditional Logit Model of Occupational Choice," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages 389-398, Part I, M.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jane Greve & Morten Saaby & Anders Rosdahl & Vibeke Tornhøj Christensen, 2021. "Uncertain occupational expectations at age 19 and later educational and labour market outcomes," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 35(2), pages 163-191, June.
    2. Juerg Schweri, 2021. "Predicting polytomous career choices in healthcare using probabilistic expectations data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 544-563, March.
    3. Bando, Rosangela & Li, Xia, 2014. "The Effect of In-Service Teacher Training on Student Learning of English as a Second Language," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 6596, Inter-American Development Bank.
    4. Rosangela Bando & Xia Li, 2014. "The Effect of In-Service Teacher Training on Student Learning of English as a Second Language," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 86173, Inter-American Development Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2008. "Bullying, education and earnings: Evidence from the National Child Development Study," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 387-401, August.
    2. Juan Prieto Rodríguez & María José Suárez Fernández, 2006. "Like father like son? Intergenerational links within occupations and public employment," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 178(3), pages 81-111, September.
    3. Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2007. "Religion and education: Evidence from the National Child Development Study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 439-460, July.
    4. Pamela Lenton, 2006. "Where do I go and what should I do? Routes through further education," Working Papers 2006014, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2006.
    5. Sarah Brown & Karl Taylor, "undated". "Reservation Wages, Expected wages and the duration of Unemployment: evidence from British Panel data," Working Papers 2009001, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    6. Sarah Brown & Karl Taylor, 2006. "Financial expectations, consumption and saving: a microeconomic analysis," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 313-338, August.
    7. Hobbs, Graham & Vignoles, Anna, 2007. "Is free school meal status a valid proxy for socio-economic status (in schools research)?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19385, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Massenot, Baptiste & Pettinicchi, Yuri, 2019. "Can households see into the future? Survey evidence from the Netherlands," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 77-90.
    9. Brunello, Giorgio & Checchi, Daniele, 2005. "School quality and family background in Italy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 563-577, October.
    10. César Alonso-Borrego & Antonio Romero-Medina, 2016. "Wage Expectations for Higher Education Students in Spain," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 30(1), pages 1-17, March.
    11. Christian Dustmann & Najma Rajah & Arthur van Soest, 2003. "Class Size, Education, and Wages," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 99-120, February.
    12. Yuxin Li & Karen Mumford, "undated". "Aspirations, Expectations and Education Outcomes for Children in Britain: Considering Relative Measures of Family Efficiency," Discussion Papers 09/26, Department of Economics, University of York.
    13. Sarah Brown & Karl Taylor, 2006. "Social Interaction and Intergenerational Skill Transfer," Working Papers 2006013, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2006.
    14. Vaishali Zambre, 2018. "The Gender Gap in Wage Expectations: Do Young Women Trade off Higher Wages for Lower Wage Risk?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1742, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Sarah Brown & Karl Taylor, 2005. "Bullying, Education and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from the National Child Development Study," Working Papers 2005015, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2005.
    16. Kettunen, Juha, 2002. "Labour mobility of unemployed workers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 359-380, May.
    17. Anastasia Klimova, 2012. "Gender differences in determinants of occupational choice in Russia," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(9), pages 648-670, July.
    18. Ermisch, John & Francesconi, Marco, 2002. "Intergenerational Social Mobility and Assortative Mating in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 465, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Gianni De Fraja & Tania Oliveira & Luisa Zanchi, 2010. "Must Try Harder: Evaluating the Role of Effort in Educational Attainment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(3), pages 577-597, August.
    20. Juan-Jesús Torres-Gordillo & Paloma Belinda García-Martínez, 2022. "Employment Training at the University: Employment Expectations in Times of Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-13, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education Expectations Human capital Occupational status;

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:30:y:2011:i:3:p:493-506. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.