Exchange, Structure, and Symmetry in Occupational Mobility

Abstract

Previous attempts to related the traditional concepts of exchange and structural mobility to parameters of the log linear model have been flawed. This article reformulated these concepts; introduces a new, more general conceptual distinction between reciprocated and unreciprocated mobility; and matches the concepts of structure and exchange to parameters of the model of quasi symmetry (QS). Specifically, if exchange or reciprocated mobility is defined as that part of the mobility process that results from equal flows between pairs of occupational categories, and if structural mobility is defined as an effect of marginal heterogeneity that operates uniformly on origins, then (if QS or any special case of QS holds) there is a correspondence between the parameter of the model and the concepts of structure and exchange. Furthermore, this correspondence can be used to develop meaningful parametric (as opposed to ad hoc) indexes of structural mobility. However, if QS fails to hold, there is at best a partial correspondence between the concepts of structure and exchange and the parameters of any multiplicative model. Data from Brazil, Great Britain, and the United States are used to illustrate the article's approach.

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