Who Climbs the Ivory Tower? Social origins of academic faculty in an egalitarian welfare state

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Abstract

While there is extensive literature on intergenerational mobility in education, including the transition to PhD, much less is known about the transition to academic faculty. In this paper, we use unique register data following entire birth cohorts born from 1955 to 1985 in Norway, an egalitarian welfare state, to investigate the social origins of academic faculty. Despite free public higher education and PhD positions with competitive wages, potentially removing many barriers to entry, we find large and stable differences in the likelihood of becoming faculty members by parental education, earnings, and whether parents are faculty members. However, while the likelihood of becoming a faculty member varies widely depending on social origins, sorting into faculty positions seems to be explained mainly by differences in obtaining a PhD. Once we compare individuals with PhD educations, social origins do not seem to constitute an additional barrier to becoming a faculty member. Nevertheless, social origins influence the likelihood of obtaining a position at more prestigious institutions, and faculty members from more advantageous backgrounds have higher earnings. Thus, social origins shape academic careers beyond their effects on entering academia.

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