How the Great Recession changed class inequality: Evidence from 23 European countries.

The question of whether economic recessions increase or decrease the earnings gap between the working and upper-middle class is debated. We study this issue and examine the Great Recession period using two different analytical strategies: three-level multilevel models and multivariate analysis over time. Based on EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data in 23 countries from 2004 to 2017, our results under both analytical strategies provide robust evidence that, by and large, the Great Recession widened the earnings gap between the working and upper-middle class. The effect magnitude is sizable; an increase of 5 percentage points in the unemployment rate is associated with an increase in the class earnings gap of approximately 0.10 log points.

Socioeconomic Positions and Midlife Health Trajectories in a Changing Social Context: Evidence from China, 1991-2006.

Cumulative (dis)advantage theory posits that socioeconomic disparities in health may increase with age. This study examines individuals' midlife health trajectories, taking account of how their life courses are embedded within changing social contexts. Using the China Health and Nutrition Survey (1991-2006), it examines the health gap between Chinese rural peasants and urban nonpeasants in three adjacent time periods, during which a rapid process of social change increased the inequalities between rural and urban areas. Findings show that the health gap increases more rapidly in the more recent time periods, with higher levels of inequality, indicating that health inequalities between the two groups are contingent upon the social contexts in which individuals' lives unfold. To better understand the differences observed over these time periods, further analysis will examine the roles of two structural factors: income inequality and differential access to medical care.

Is it adding up? The cumulative effect of sickness benefits on life expectancy in old age in 15 OECD countries 1960-2015.

Since the 1950s, high-income countries have experienced an immense increase in life expectancy. Previous studies have largely assessed how individual-level factors influence longevity, whereas cumulative dis/advantage theory (CDA) has in general been used to explain the relationship between individual resources and mortality in relation to aging. Rare studies have investigated the institutional impact on mortality within the framework of CDA. The research field is thus lacking studies that compare more than a handful of countries over a longer period. This study attempts to align CDA and comparative welfare state research by analysing the relationship between sickness benefits and life expectancy at age 65, comparing fifteen affluent countries over the period 1960 to 2015. The found results demonstrate that countries with higher benefit coverage have a larger increase in life expectancy, among both men and women. The effect of income replacement was mixed and appear to depend on the share of population covered by sickness benefits. This institutional interplay between coverage and income replacement supports previous insights about the beneficial effects of universal programs on population health.

Exploring the Consequences of Major Lifetime Discrimination, Neighborhood Conditions, Chronic Work, and Everyday Discrimination on Health and Retirement.

This study examines the associations of multiple forms of perceived discrimination and negative neighborhood conditions with mental health and retirement age. Respondents aged above 51 years from the Health and Retirement Study were selected in 2006 and surveyed through 2014. Ordinary least squares regression evaluated associations. Bias-corrected bootstrap resampling method tested whether mental health mediated the relationships between disadvantages and retirement age. Major lifetime and work discrimination, as well as neighborhood conditions, were directly associated with earlier retirement. Individuals who did not experience disadvantages retired at age 65, whereas respondents with the highest levels of disadvantage retired earlier (at age 62). Mental health partially mediated relationships between major lifetime discrimination, neighborhood conditions, and work discrimination with retirement age, whereas mental health fully mediated the relationship between everyday discrimination and retirement age. Efforts to promote civil rights, reduce discrimination, and enhance individual resilience may promote mental health and capacity to work longer.

"It's Luck as to What Sort of Family You're Born Into" Cumulative Dis/advantage Generative Systemic Processes Across the Life Course of a Baby-Boom Birth Cohort.

OBJECTIVES: While a large body of evidence exists in support of outcomes associated with cumulative dis/advantage (CAD), individual-level experiences of the systemic processes that generate unequal outcomes have received far less attention. This study explored experiences, among members of an early baby-boom birth cohort, of CAD-generative processes within the education and housing systems and the mechanisms by which they interacted with initial social position to perpetuate inequalities. METHODS: The author conducted in-depth interviews (n = 27) with members of the Newcastle Thousand Families Study, a UK 1947 birth cohort. Longitudinal survey data enabled participant sampling on the basis of gender, occupational social class at birth and age 50, educational attainment and homeownership status at age 60. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Analysis identified two themes: Firstly, the sorting and funneling mechanisms by which the "meritocratic" education system interacted with initial social position, progressively narrowing aspirations and opportunities; and secondly, the creation in later life of winners and losers in the property market, resulting in legitimization of inequalities through a deservingness narrative. DISCUSSION: CAD has proved persistent, even among the supposedly "lucky" early baby-boom cohort. Policies to ameliorate CAD generation through education and property systems act instead to entrench advantaged social positions. Later-life outcomes can be naturalized as the product of effort-plus-ability if not seen in a whole-life context. Disruption of CAD processes requires challenging vested interest inherent in social systems.

Systemic and Reflexive: Foundations of Cumulative Dis/Advantage and Life-Course Processes.

Cumulative dis/advantage has been defined as the systemic tendency for interindividual divergence in a given characteristic to increase with the passage of time. Over recent decades, evidence supporting cumulative dis/advantage (CDA) as a cohort-based process that produces inequalities on a range of life-course outcomes has steadily increased. This paper reviews this growing body of work, grounding the discussion in CDA's foundation as a general sociological construct with broad relevance. I emphasize the distinction between outcome and process, and then distinguish multiple levels of social analysis at which CDA operates. From this review, I extract two principles, endogenous system dynamics and life-course reflexivity, that can be cross-classified to provide a framework for analyzing contemporary research frameworks and initiatives relevant to CDA. I argue that the full sociological impact and implications of CDA research has been unevenly developed and applied, and conclude by suggesting some possible directions for further building on CDA's insights.

Cumulative Dis/Advantage and Health Pattern in Late Life: A Comparison between Genders and Welfare State Regimes.

This study provides a cross-national perspective to apply Cumulative Dis/Advantage (CDA) in explaining health inequality between developing and developed countries in the context of Welfare State Theory. Cross-sectional data from the international Health Retirement Study (United States, China, Mexico, and England) in 2013-2014 were used (n = 97,978). Four health indicators were included: self-reported health, depressive symptoms, functional ability, and memory. Regression models were fitted to examine the moderation roles of country and gender. Results indicated older Chinese and Mexican had poorer health status than their British and American counterparts consistently except for Mexicans' memory. Cumulative health gaps between developing and developed countries existed only for functional ability. There is no evidence of a widening gap in health status between genders in late life. CDA explains the increasing gaps of functional ability across age groups between countries. General health and mental health, may however, depend more on individuals' intrinsic capacity and human agency.

Education and Health across Lives and Cohorts: A Study of Cumulative (Dis)advantage and Its Rising Importance in Germany.

Research from the United States has supported two hypotheses. First, educational gaps in health widen with age-the cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis. Second, this relationship has intensified across cohorts-the rising importance hypothesis. In this article, we used 23 waves of panel data (Socio-Economic Panel Study, 1992-2014) to examine both hypotheses in the German context. We considered individual and contextual influences on the association between education and health, and we assessed gender differences in health trajectories over the life course (ages 23 to 84) and across cohorts (born between 1930 and 1969). For women, we found no support for either hypothesis, as educational gaps in self-rated health remained stable with age and across cohorts. Among men, we found support for both hypotheses, as educational gaps in self-rated health widened with age and increasingly in newer cohorts.

Older women public sector workers in Ireland: Decisions about retirement timing.

Older women workers' decision making around retirement is increasingly important given the increasing involvement of older women in paid employment. This article explores influences on the retirement decision making of older women workers in Ireland. It is based on a case study of 57 interviews with women in the Irish civil service exploring work-life decision making. It finds that retirement choices vary according to initial socioeconomic resources and/or life-course trajectories and are particularly affected by gendered caring norms, employment policy, job tenure, and place in organizational hierarchies. Those women with interrupted careers and low pay have fewer choices around retirement timing.

Social origins and post-high school institutional pathways: a cumulative dis/advantage approach.

The social stratification that takes place during the transition out of high school is traditionally explained with theoretical frameworks such as status attainment and social reproduction. In our paper, we suggest the cumulative dis/advantage hypothesis as an alternative theoretical and empirical approach that explains this divergence in institutional pathways as the result of the dynamic interplay between social institutions (in our case, schools) and individuals' resources. We use data from the NLSY79 in order to compute institutional pathways (defined by educational and occupational status) of 9,200 high school graduates. Optimal Matching Analysis and Cluster Analysis generated a typology of life course pathways. Our results show that both ascribed characteristics and students' high school characteristics and resources are predictors of post-high school pathways.