Trends in the socioeconomic achievement of the university educated: a status at tainment model interpretation

The paper examines the contribution the sociologist's status attainment model makes towards comprehending reasons for the decline, since the mid 1960's, in the economic prospects of university graduates. The assumptions of the model are compared with those underlying an economist's labour market approach, in which explanations are phrased in terms of aggregate demand and supply for the university educated. Tested in the paper is the hypothesis that decline in background endowments among university graduates, a consequence of the policy commitment to democratize access to Canadian universities, accounts for some of the downward trend in the level of job obtained by graduates entering the labour market. The statistical analysis uses data from Ontario and Canada-wide surveys, and finds that changes in father's mean status explain only a small part of the drop in son's first job status. Th e mod el suggests that deterioration in univer-sity completion rates can account for more of the decline. RÉSUMÉ Le travail examine la contribution que le modèle de l'accession au rang social fournit par le déclin des perspectives économiques des diplômés universitaires dès la moitié des années 60. On compare les hypothèses du modèle avac celles qui servent de base aux économistes pour l'étude du marché de travail, dans laquelle les explications sont formulées en terme d'offre et demande collective des universitaires. On test l'hypothèse selon laquelle là baisse du niveau général des universitaires, conséquence de la politique adoptée de démocratisation de l'accès aux études universitaires au Canada, explique une certaine * This is part of a research programme supported by a grant from the SSHRC. 1 am indebted to Edward Harvey, who permitted me to use his Ontario survey: to James Curtis, Neil Guppv, and Peter Pineo, for their comments on the paper; to Wayne Thirsk, for bibliographic advice: and to Jean Leiper and Christine Kluck Davis for research assistance. The paper was prepared, in part, while the author was supported by a Canada Council Leave Fellowship