IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v98y2026ics0927537125001381.html

Career preferences and socio-economic background

Author

Listed:
  • Schüle, Paul

Abstract

Career decisions, that is educational and occupational choice, are not only taken by comparing expected incomes, but also by considering non-monetary rewards such as social impact, chances of promotion, or the compatibility of work and family. In this paper, I use rich panel data from Germany and the UK to demonstrate that preferences about such aspects of a career as stated at age 17 are strong predictors of future earnings in the labor market. At the same time, these preferences differ significantly by gender and socio-economic background, and intergenerational income persistence is reduced by 7 to 28 percent when accounting for career preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Schüle, Paul, 2026. "Career preferences and socio-economic background," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:98:y:2026:i:c:s0927537125001381
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102814
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537125001381
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102814?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bart H.H. Golsteyn & Hans Grönqvist & Lena Lindahl, 2014. "Adolescent Time Preferences Predict Lifetime Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(580), pages 739-761, November.
    2. Miles Corak & Patrizio Piraino, 2011. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Employers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 37-68, January.
    3. Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2010. "Inherited Trust and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2060-2092, December.
    4. Martin Nybom & Jan Stuhler, 2016. "Heterogeneous Income Profiles and Lifecycle Bias in Intergenerational Mobility Estimation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(1), pages 239-268.
    5. Boustan, Leah & Jensen, Mathias Fjællegaard & Abramitzky, Ran & Jácome, Elisa & Manning, Alan & Pérez, Santiago & Watley, Analysia & Adermon, Adrian & Arellano-Bover, Jaime & Åslund, Olof & Connol, 2025. "Intergenerational mobility of immigrants in 15 destination countries," CEPR Discussion Papers 20003, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    6. Jérôme Adda & Christian Dustmann & Katrien Stevens, 2017. "The Career Costs of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(2), pages 293-337.
    7. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2012. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Risk and Trust Attitudes," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(2), pages 645-677.
    8. Chuard, Patrick & Grassi, Veronica, 2020. "Switzer-Land of Opportunity:Intergenerational Income Mobility in the Land of Vocational Education," Economics Working Paper Series 2011, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    9. Kosse, Fabian & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2012. "Impatience among preschool children and their mothers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 493-495.
    10. Fabian Kosse & Thomas Deckers & Pia Pinger & Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch & Armin Falk, 2020. "The Formation of Prosociality: Causal Evidence on the Role of Social Environment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(2), pages 434-467.
    11. Bonin, Holger & Dohmen, Thomas & Falk, Armin & Huffman, David & Sunde, Uwe, 2007. "Cross-sectional earnings risk and occupational sorting: The role of risk attitudes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 926-937, December.
    12. Corina Boar & Danial Lashkari, 2021. "Occupational Choice and the Intergenerational Mobility of Welfare," NBER Working Papers 29381, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Sreevidya Ayyar & Uta Bolt… & Eric French… & Cormac O’Dea…, 2024. "Imagine your Life at 25: Gender Conformity and Later-Life Outcomes," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 24/781, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    14. Fouarge, Didier & Kriechel, Ben & Dohmen, Thomas, 2014. "Occupational sorting of school graduates: The role of economic preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 335-351.
    15. Fabian Kosse & Friedhelm Pfeiffer, 2013. "Quasi-hyperbolic time preferences and their intergenerational transmission," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(10), pages 983-986, July.
    16. Day Manoli & Nicholas Turner, 2018. "Cash-on-Hand and College Enrollment: Evidence from Population Tax Data and the Earned Income Tax Credit," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 242-271, May.
    17. Steven Haider & Gary Solon, 2006. "Life-Cycle Variation in the Association between Current and Lifetime Earnings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1308-1320, September.
    18. Jonah B. Gelbach, 2016. "When Do Covariates Matter? And Which Ones, and How Much?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(2), pages 509-543.
    19. Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2010. "Inherited Trust and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2060-2092, December.
    20. Samuel Bowles, 1998. "Endogenous Preferences: The Cultural Consequences of Markets and Other Economic Institutions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 75-111, March.
    21. Royston, Patrick & White, Ian R., 2011. "Multiple Imputation by Chained Equations (MICE): Implementation in Stata," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 45(i04).
    22. Goebel Jan & Grabka Markus M. & Liebig Stefan & Kroh Martin & Richter David & Schröder Carsten & Schupp Jürgen, 2019. "The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(2), pages 345-360, April.
    23. Michael P. Keane & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2010. "The Role Of Labor And Marriage Markets, Preference Heterogeneity, And The Welfare System In The Life Cycle Decisions Of Black, Hispanic, And White Women," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(3), pages 851-892, August.
    24. Heckman, James J. & Lochner, Lance J. & Todd, Petra E., 2006. "Earnings Functions, Rates of Return and Treatment Effects: The Mincer Equation and Beyond," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 307-458, Elsevier.
    25. Sreevidya Ayyar & Uta Bolt & Eric French & Cormac O'Dea, 2024. "Imagine your life at 25: Gender conformity and later-life outcomes," IFS Working Papers W24/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    26. Alex Solis, 2017. "Credit Access and College Enrollment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(2), pages 562-622.
    27. Robert B. Barsky & F. Thomas Juster & Miles S. Kimball & Matthew D. Shapiro, 1997. "Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 537-579.
    28. Uwe Sunde & Thomas Dohmen & Benjamin Enke & Armin Falkbriq & David Huffman & Gerrit Meyerheim, 2022. "Patience and Comparative Development," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(5), pages 2806-2840.
    29. Johannes Abeler & Armin Falk & Fabian Kosse, 2025. "Malleability of Preferences for Honesty," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 135(667), pages 982-998.
    30. Alexandre Mas & Amanda Pallais, 2017. "Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3722-3759, December.
    31. Jonathan Guryan & Erik Hurst & Melissa Kearney, 2008. "Parental Education and Parental Time with Children," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 23-46, Summer.
    32. Kosse, Fabian & Tincani, Michaela M., 2020. "Prosociality predicts labor market success around the world," Munich Reprints in Economics 75115, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    33. Altmejd, Adam, 2023. "Inheritance of fields of study," Working Paper Series 2023:11, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    34. Matthew Wiswall & Basit Zafar, 2018. "Preference for the Workplace, Investment in Human Capital, and Gender," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(1), pages 457-507.
    35. James J. Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto, 2015. "Econometric Mediation Analyses: Identifying the Sources of Treatment Effects from Experimentally Estimated Production Technologies with Unmeasured and Mismeasured Inputs," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1-2), pages 6-31, February.
    36. Bingley, Paul & Corak, Miles & Westergård-Nielsen, Niels C., 2011. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Employers in Canada and Denmark," IZA Discussion Papers 5593, IZA Network @ LISER.
    37. Francis Kramarz & Oskar Nordström Skans, 2014. "When Strong Ties are Strong: Networks and Youth Labour Market Entry," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(3), pages 1164-1200.
    38. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2009. "Homo Reciprocans: Survey Evidence on Behavioural Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 592-612, March.
    39. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    40. Alan, Sule & Baydar, Nazli & Boneva, Teodora & Crossley, Thomas F. & Ertac, Seda, 2017. "Transmission of risk preferences from mothers to daughters," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 60-77.
    41. Julia Baarck & Moritz Bode & Andreas Peichl, 2025. "Rising Inequality, Declining Mobility: The Evolution of Intergenerational Mobility in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 12058, CESifo.
    42. Orazio Attanasio & Aureo de Paula & Alessandro Toppeta, 2020. "The Persistence of Socio-Emotional Skills: Life Cycle and Intergenerational Evidence," Documentos de Trabajo 18403, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).
    43. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Gabriel Leite-Mariante, 2023. "The Child Penalty Atlas," NBER Working Papers 31649, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    44. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Odermatt, Reto, 2022. "All I have to do is dream? The role of aspirations in intergenerational mobility and well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    45. French, Eric Baird & O’Dea, Cormac & MacCuish, Jamie, 2021. "The Intergenerational Elasticity of Earnings: Exploring the Mechanisms," CEPR Discussion Papers 15975, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    46. Julia Baarck & Moritz Bode & Andreas Peichl, 2025. "Rising Inequality, Declining Mobility: The Evolution of Intergenerational Mobility in Germany," CEBI working paper series 25-15, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    47. Fabian Kosse & Michela M. Tincani, 2020. "Prosociality predicts labor market success around the world," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-6, December.
    48. Black, Sandra E. & Devereux, Paul J., 2011. "Recent Developments in Intergenerational Mobility," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 16, pages 1487-1541, Elsevier.
    49. Maria Zumbuehl & Thomas Dohmen & Gerard Pfann, 2021. "Parental Involvement and the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Preferences, Attitudes and Personality Traits," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(638), pages 2642-2670.
    50. Andrés Erosa & Luisa Fuster & Gueorgui Kambourov & Richard Rogerson, 2022. "Hours, Occupations, and Gender Differences in Labor Market Outcomes," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 543-590, July.
    51. Peter Valet & Carsten Sauer & Jochem Tolsma, 2021. "Preferences for work arrangements: A discrete choice experiment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-20, July.
    52. Matthias Doepke & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2017. "Parenting With Style: Altruism and Paternalism in Intergenerational Preference Transmission," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 1331-1371, September.
    53. Burbano, Vanessa & Padilla, Nicolas & Meier, Stephan, 2020. "Gender Differences in Preferences for Meaning at Work," IZA Discussion Papers 13053, IZA Network @ LISER.
    54. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1553-1623.
    55. Eliana La Ferrara, 2019. "Presidential Address: Aspirations, Social Norms, and Development," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(6), pages 1687-1722.
    56. Biewen, Martin & Tapalaga, Madalina, 2017. "Life-cycle educational choices in a system with early tracking and ‘second chance’ options," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 80-94.
    57. Zachary Ward, 2023. "Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(12), pages 3213-3248, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Paul Schüle, 2023. "Career Preferences and Socio-Economic Background," ifo Working Paper Series 395, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    2. Breitkopf, Laura & Chowdhury, Shyamal K. & Priyam, Shambhavi & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Do economic preferences of children predict behavior?," DICE Discussion Papers 342, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    3. Galassi, Gabriela & Koll, David & Mayr, Lukas, 2024. "The intergenerational correlation of employment: Mothers as role models?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Epper, Thomas, 2022. "Parenting values and the intergenerational transmission of time preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    5. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Epper, Thomas, 2022. "Parenting values and the intergenerational transmission of time preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Chen, Wen-Hao & Ostrovsky, Yuri & Piraino, Patrizio, 2017. "Lifecycle variation, errors-in-variables bias and nonlinearities in intergenerational income transmission: new evidence from Canada," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-12.
    7. Gabriela Galassi & David Koll & Lukas Mayr, 2019. "The Intergenerational Correlation of Employment: Is There a Role for Work Culture?," Staff Working Papers 19-33, Bank of Canada.
    8. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Sutter, Matthias & Zimmermann, Klaus F., "undated". "Evaluating intergenerational persistence of economic preferences: A large scale experiment with families in Bangladesh," Discussion Papers 270848, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    9. Takeda, Kohei, 2022. "The geography of structural transformation: effects on inequality and mobility," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118050, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Chowdhury, Shyamal & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Economic preferences across generations and family clusters: A large-scale experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 14998, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    11. Laura Alfaro & Ester Faia & Nora Lamersdorf & Farzad Saidi, 2022. "Health Externalities and Policy: The Role of Social Preferences," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6751-6761, September.
    12. Armin Falk & Fabian Kosse & Pia Pinger & Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch & Thomas Deckers, 2021. "Socioeconomic Status and Inequalities in Children’s IQ and Economic Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(9), pages 2504-2545.
    13. Necker, Sarah & Voskort, Andrea, 2014. "Intergenerational transmission of risk attitudes – A revealed preference approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 66-89.
    14. Tim Friehe & Markus Pannenberg, 2020. "Time preferences and political regimes: evidence from reunified Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 349-387, January.
    15. Angerer, Silvia & Baier, Helena Antonie & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp & Rittmannsberger, Thomas, 2024. "Economic Preferences Predict COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions and Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 17533, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Bietenbeck, Jan & Sunde, Uwe & Thiemann, Petra, 2025. "Recession experiences during early adulthood shape prosocial attitudes later in life," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    17. Raitano Michele & Francesco Vona, 2015. "From the cradle to the grave : the effect of family background on the career path of italian men," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2015-05, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    18. Pier-André Bouchard St-Amant & Nicolas Marceau & Jean-Denis Garon, 2024. "Uncovering Gatsby Curves," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(4), pages 833-864, December.
    19. Dodin, Majed & Findeisen, Sebastian & Henkel, Lukas & Sachs, Dominik & Schüle, Paul, 2024. "Social mobility in Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    20. Armin Falk & Anke Becker & Thomas Dohmen & Benjamin Enke & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2018. "Global Evidence on Economic Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(4), pages 1645-1692.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

    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:labeco:v:98:y:2026:i:c:s0927537125001381. 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/labeco .

    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.