IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v7y2019i3p224-253.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Vocational Education and Employment: Explaining Cohort Variations in Life Course Patterns

Author

Listed:
  • Fabian Kratz

    (Sociology Department, University of Munich, Germany)

  • Alexander Patzina

    (IAB—Institute for Employment Research, Germany)

  • Corinna Kleinert

    (LIfBi—Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Germany / Sociology Department, University of Bamberg, Germany)

  • Hans Dietrich

    (IAB—Institute for Employment Research, Germany)

Abstract

A stylized finding on returns to vocational education is that vocational compared to general education generates a differential life course pattern of employability: while vocational education guarantees smooth transitions into the labour market and thus generates initial advantages, these erode with increasing age, leading to late-life reversals in employment chances. We contribute to this research by assessing cohort variations in life-cycle patterns and distinguishing two explanations for late-life reversals in employment chances. The adaptability argument states that this phenomenon is due to the lower adaptability and occupational flexibility of those with vocational education. In contrast, the health argument states that vocational education leads to physically more demanding occupations, faster health deterioration, and, thus, lower employability in later life. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we employ non-parametric state probability analysis to assess cohort variations in employment patterns, and mediation analysis to assess how much of the late-life reversal of employment patterns is due to a faster health deterioration among the vocationally educated. Results show that the early life advantage of vocational education increases across cohorts. Furthermore, those with vocational education exhibit faster health deterioration, and a small part of the late-life employment disadvantage of this group works through lower levels of health after midlife.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabian Kratz & Alexander Patzina & Corinna Kleinert & Hans Dietrich, 2019. "Vocational Education and Employment: Explaining Cohort Variations in Life Course Patterns," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 224-253.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:7:y:2019:i:3:p:224-253
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/2045
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ulrich Kohler & Kristian Bernt Karlson & Anders Holm, 2011. "Comparing coefficients of nested nonlinear probability models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 11(3), pages 420-438, September.
    2. Cörvers, F. & Heijke, J.A.M. & Kriechel, B. & Pfeifer, H., 2011. "High and steady or low and rising? : life cycle earnings patterns in vocational and general education," Research Memorandum 042, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    3. Andrew Bell & Kelvyn Jones, 2014. "Another 'futile quest'? A simulation study of Yang and Land's Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort model," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(11), pages 333-360.
    4. Ulrich Kohler, 2011. "Comparing coefficients between nested nonlinear probability models," German Stata Users' Group Meetings 2011 08, Stata Users Group.
    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. Irene Kriesi & Juerg Schweri, 2019. "Types of Education, Achievement and Labour Market Integration over the Life Course," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 58-64.
    2. Alexander Patzina & Hans Dietrich & Anton Barabasch, 2022. "Health, Personality Disorders, Work Commitment, and Training‐to‐Employment Transitions," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(2), pages 369-382.

    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. Stefanie Sperlich & Frauke-Marie Adler & Johannes Beller & Batoul Safieddine & Juliane Tetzlaff & Fabian Tetzlaff & Siegfried Geyer, 2022. "Getting Better or Getting Worse? A Population-Based Study on Trends in Self-Rated Health among Single Mothers in Germany between 1994 and 2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Zimei Liu & Yezhi Ren & Yanlan Mei, 2022. "How Does Internet Use Promote Farmer Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Xuezhen Xu & Fang Wang & Tao Xu & Sufyan Ullah Khan, 2023. "How Does Capital Endowment Impact Farmers’ Green Production Behavior? Perspectives on Ecological Cognition and Environmental Regulation," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-27, August.
    4. Mathieu Ichou & Matthew Wallace, 2019. "The Healthy Immigrant Effect: The role of educational selectivity in the good health of migrants," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(4), pages 61-94.
    5. Samuel H. Fishman & S. Philip Morgan & Robert A. Hummer, 2018. "Smoking and Variation in the Hispanic Paradox: A Comparison of Low Birthweight Across 33 US States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 795-824, October.
    6. Zajacova, Anna & Montez, Jennifer Karas, 2018. "Explaining the increasing disability prevalence among mid-life US adults, 2002 to 2016," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 1-8.
    7. Jakob, Martina & Combet, Benita, 2020. "Educational aspirations and decision-making in a context of poverty. A test of rational choice models in El Salvador," SocArXiv w9bkq, Center for Open Science.
    8. Mas Ayu Said & Govindamal Thangiah & Hazreen Abdul Majid & Rozmi Ismail & Tan Maw Pin & Hussein Rizal & Mohd Azlan Shah Zaidi & Daniel Reidpath & Tin Tin Su, 2022. "Income Disparity and Mental Wellbeing among Adults in Semi-Urban and Rural Areas in Malaysia: The Mediating Role of Social Capital," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-16, May.
    9. Myrskylä, Mikko & Elo, Irma T. & Kohler, Iliana V. & Martikainen, Pekka, 2014. "The association between advanced maternal and paternal ages and increased adult mortality is explained by early parental loss," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 215-223.
    10. Watson, Barry & Kong, Nancy & Phipps, Shelley, 2022. "Dreaming of a Brighter Future? The Impact of Economic Vulnerability on University Aspirations," IZA Discussion Papers 15539, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Thomas Bøker Lund & Sara Vincentzen Kondrup & Peter Sandøe, 2019. "A multidimensional measure of animal ethics orientation – Developed and applied to a representative sample of the Danish public," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-24, February.
    12. Li, Fanlue & He, Ke & Wang, Yuejie & Zhang, Junbiao, 2021. "Does Indoor Air Pollution from Solid Fuels Influence the Mental Health of Rural Residents? Evidence from China," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315024, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Gottlieb, Aaron & Wilson, Robert, 2019. "The effect of direct and vicarious police contact on the educational achievement of urban teens," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 190-199.
    14. Hee Sun Kim & Janet H. Lawrence, 2021. "Who Studies Abroad? Understanding the Impact of Intent on Participation," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(7), pages 1039-1085, November.
    15. Han, Yang & Wei, Jianwen & Zhao, Yandong, 2021. "Long-term effects of housing damage on survivors’ health in rural China: Evidence from a survey 10 Years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    16. Nix, Justin & Pickett, Justin T., 2017. "Third-person perceptions, hostile media effects, and policing: Developing a theoretical framework for assessing the Ferguson effect," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 24-33.
    17. Carpiano, Richard M. & Fitterer, Lisa M., 2014. "Questions of trust in health research on social capital: What aspects of personal network social capital do they measure?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 225-234.
    18. Francesca Fiori, 2020. "Maternal employment and the well-being of children living with a lone mother in Scotland," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(57), pages 1685-1738.
    19. Sinha, Aakanksha & McRoy, Ruth G. & Berkman, Barbara & Sutherland, Melissa, 2017. "Drivers of change: Examining the effects of gender equality on child nutrition," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 203-212.
    20. Zhuofei Lu & Wei Zhuang, 2023. "Can Teleworking Improve Workers’ Job Satisfaction? Exploring the Roles of Gender and Emotional Well-Being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 1433-1452, June.

    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:cog:socinc:v:7:y:2019:i:3:p:224-253. 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: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    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.