Education, Inequality, and Labor Market Outcomes : Patterns and Trends in Educational and Socioeconomic Transformations

This dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding of how profound educational and socioeconomic transformations since the late 20th century have influenced the changing relationship between educational attainment and labor market outcomes, evolving patterns of educational inequality by social background, and trends in intergenerational income mobility. Study I examines the role of education in explaining gender differences in intergenerational income mobility in Sweden. Drawing on register data for cohorts born between 1958 and 1979, it finds that income mobility increased and then stabilized for men, while it steadily declined for women. For both genders, reduced educational inequality contributed to increased mobility. However, for women, this effect was offset by a steady rise in educational returns among cohorts born since the late 1960s. These findings offer new insights into the role of education in driving mobility patterns within the broader context of evolving gender equality. Study II examines changes in the education–occupation linkage in Sweden from 1960 to 2013. The rapid expansion of upper tertiary education and occupational upgrading shifted composition toward more tightly linked categories. Yet these gains were largely offset by weakening structural linkages at upper secondary vocational and lower tertiary levels, where ties to specific occupations eroded considerably. Taken together, educational expansion and occupational upgrading appear relatively balanced and have jointly contributed to a closer alignment between the educational system and the occupational structure in Sweden. This underscores the importance of re-evaluating educational policies to balance skill upgrading with appropriate labor market linkages of vocational education. Study III analyzes changes in the college wage premium across 49 countries and 810 country-years between 1980 and 2022, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. Since 2000, there has been a marked decline in the wage premium, beginning in Latin America and spreading to Eastern and Central Europe. In contrast, most Western developed countries saw rising premiums throughout the 2000s, followed by stabilization or decline after 2010. Macro-level factors related to supply, demand, and institutions explain much of the cross-national variation but account for only part of the within-country changes. The global flattening of the college wage premium calls for further research to better understand its implications for the relationship between educational attainment and labor market inequality.