Against the odds. Education-to-job matches and less-educated workers’ pathways into success

The dissertation examines the labor market phenomena of over- and underqualification in a comparative research design using quantitative longitudinal data from West Germany and the United Kingdom. Three empirical chapters address three research questions: How does qualification mismatch (over- or underqualification) come about? That is, why are some but not others affected by it (micro-level), and which macro-societal conditions give rise to it? What are the consequences of over- and under-qualification for the affected workers? And finally: What is the relation between institutions of the labor market and the education and training system on the one hand, and qualification mismatch on the other? The dissertation aims to link the micro-level of individual careers with the macro-level of institutions and national patterns of educational expansion. Empirical analyses show that underqualification acts as path to relative occupational success, which is open especially to individuals with high cognitive skills and to those with a great openness to new experiences and internal loci of control. Furthermore, individuals from high-status backgrounds are particularly likely to become underqualified. Underqualification is thus an important factor in explaining intergenerational reproduction of income inequality. Using an innovative statistical approach, the second empirical chapter demonstrates that underqualification has measurable consequences for satisfaction, occupational identities, social integration, and wages of workers. Nevertheless, the results of the new method contradict established theories of status inconsistency as they rule out cognitive dissonance as the driving mechanism. In the third empirical chapter, historical analyses show that educational expansion has led to credential inflation in the United Kingdom, but not in Germany. This result has important implications for theories of educational expansion and challenges classical explanations of rising wage inequality. The final chapter summarizes the findings of the empirical studies and highlights the importance of qualification mismatches for individuals and for the study of social stratification, social change, and social mobility

Immigrant Men's Economic Adaptation in Changing Labor Markets: Why Gaps between Turkish and German Men Expanded, 1976-2015

How important were manufacturing and heavy industries to the economic integration of twentieth-century immigrants in Western societies? This article examines how macro-social change in Germany since the height of manufacturing has affected the socio-economic integration of male immigrants. We develop an analytical framework to assess how educational expansion among natives, deindustrialization, and the increasing importance of formal qualifications shape male immigrant-native gaps in labor-market outcomes over time. Empirically, we focus on first-generation male Turkish immigrants in Germany and use micro-census data spanning almost 40 years. Through a novel empirical quantification of key theoretical arguments concerning immigrant economic integration, we find growing inter-group differences between the late 1970s and mid-2000s (employment) and mid-2010s (incomes), respectively. The growth of differences between the immigrant and native income distributions was most pronounced in their respective bottom halves. Our analysis shows that these trends are linked to the increased importance of formal educational qualifications for individual labor-market success, to educational expansion in Germany, and to deindustrialization. Employment in Germany shifted away from middling positions in manufacturing, but while natives tended to move into better-paying positions, Turkish immigrants mainly shifted into disadvantaged service jobs. These results provide novel evidence for claims that the economic assimilation of less-skilled immigrants may become structurally harder in increasingly post-industrial societies. We conclude that structural change in host countries is an important, yet often overlooked, driver of immigrant socio-economic integration trajectories

Immigrant Men’s Economic Adaptation in Changing Labor Markets: Why Gaps between Turkish and German Men Expanded, 1976–2015

How important were manufacturing and heavy industries to the economic integration of twentieth-century immigrants in Western societies? This article examines how macro-social change in Germany since the height of manufacturing has affected the socio-economic integration of male immigrants. We develop an analytical framework to assess how educational expansion among natives, deindustrialization, and the increasing importance of formal qualifications shape male immigrant-native gaps in labor-market outcomes over time. Empirically, we focus on first-generation male Turkish immigrants in Germany and use micro-census data spanning almost 40 years. Through a novel empirical quantification of key theoretical arguments concerning immigrant economic integration, we find growing inter-group differences between the late 1970s and mid-2000s (employment) and mid-2010s (incomes), respectively. The growth of differences between the immigrant and native income distributions was most pronounced in their respective bottom halves. Our analysis shows that these trends are linked to the increased importance of formal educational qualifications for individual labor-market success, to educational expansion in Germany, and to deindustrialization. Employment in Germany shifted away from middling positions in manufacturing, but while natives tended to move into better-paying positions, Turkish immigrants mainly shifted into disadvantaged service jobs. These results provide novel evidence for claims that the economic assimilation of less-skilled immigrants may become structurally harder in increasingly post-industrial societies. We conclude that structural change in host countries is an important, yet often overlooked, driver of immigrant socio-economic integration trajectories.Peer Reviewe

Career trajectories into undereducation: Which skills and resources substitute formal education in the intergenerational transmission of advantage?

A significant share of employees in Europe has less formal training than is required by their job; they are undereducated. We use harmonized panel data from the United Kingdom and Germany to investigate the skills and resources allowing the undereducated to develop careers in occupations supposedly beyond their reach. Our theoretical approach complements individual-centered labor market theory with an intergenerational mobility perspective which regards undereducation as a form of family status maintenance. Our empirical results show that persons whose (non-)cognitive skills exceed their formal education are more likely to be undereducated in the cross-section, and to enter undereducated employment or be promoted into it throughout the life course. Yet beyond individual merit, parental socio-economic status is a similarly-important predictor of these outcomes; our analyses even trace a significant share of the importance of (non-)cognitive skills to it. To complete our intergenerational argument, we finally demonstrate that undereducation acts as a pathway to the intergenerational reproduction of earnings inequality - more so, in fact, than the avoidance of overeducation. These results are remarkably similar across the UK and Germany, although some country differences suggest higher skill-induced career mobility in Britain and stronger origin effects in Germany. We discuss promising avenues for further comparative research in the conclusion

Feldstudie zur Identifikation der von Konstrukteuren praktizierten Handlungsmuster bei der Funktion-Gestalt-Synthese = Field study for identification of designers\u27 methodologies during the function-shape-synthesis

In practice, methodological support for designing processes should enable designers to develop solutions for technical problems more effectively and more efficiently. At present, there is a deficit in design research as the various influences on the designing process and their consequences have not been fully explored yet. Hence, this work tries to analyse the methodologies of designers in industrial practice during the function-shape-synthesis on the basis of six case studies

The ethnic diversity and collective action survey (EDCAS): technical report

"The EDCA-Survey is a large scale CATI telephone survey conducted in three countries: Germany, France and the Netherlands. The survey was designed to test theoretical arguments on the effects of ethnic diversity on social capital and civic engagement. This aim demands for a sophisticated design. The survey is not representative for the entire populations of Germany, France or the Netherlands. Instead, the basic population is the population over the age of 18 in 74 selected regions in Germany, France and the Netherlands that have sufficient language skills to conduct an interview in the language of their country of residence, or in the case of the oversample of people with Turkish migration background to conduct the interview in Turkish. The aim of the survey is to enable the comparison of these 74 regions, which vary on contextual characteristics of interest. In addition, the EDCA-Survey includes one oversample of migrants in general (24%) and an additional second oversample of Turkish migrants in particular (14%). The oversampling is the same within each of the 74 regions, each of which has about 100 observations and seven specially chosen cities even 500. This survey design is an important characteristic of the EDCA-Survey and distinguishes it from other available data. This is important since one aim of the EDCA-Survey is to enable the aggregation of contextual characteristics from the survey itself. Overall, 10.200 completed interviews were conducted - 7500 in Germany, 1400 in France and 1300 in the Netherlands." (author's abstract)"Der EDCA-Survey ist eine CATI gestützte Telefonumfrage, die in Deutschland, Frankreich und den Niederlanden durchgeführt wurde. Die Umfrage wurde mit dem Ziel erhoben, Effekte ethnischer Diversität auf Sozialkapital und Zivilengagement zu untersuchen. Dieses Vorhaben setzt ein komplexes Surveydesign voraus. So ist die Umfrage nicht repräsentativ für die Bevölkerungen von Deutschland, Frankreich und den Niederlanden. Stattdessen bildet die Grundgesamtheit die Bevölkerung von 74 ausgewählten Regionen der drei Länder, die über die Sprachfertigkeit verfügen, ein Interview in der Landessprache oder gegebenenfalls auf Türkisch zu führen. Ziel ist der Vergleich dieser 74 Regionen, die sich hinsichtlich verschiedener Charakteristika unterscheiden. Darüber hinaus weist der EDCA-Survey eine überproportionale Stichprobe von Personen mit Migrationshintergrund (24%) und eine zweite überproportionale Stichprobe von Personen mit türkischem Migrationshintergrund (14%) auf. Diese überproportionale Stichprobe wurde in jeder der 74 Regionen gezogen, in denen jeweils ca. 100 Interviews durchgeführt wurden. In sieben speziell ausgesuchten Regionen wurden 500 Interviews geführt. Dieses Surveydesign ist ein zentrales Charakteristikum des EDCA-Surveys und ermöglicht die Aggregation von Kontextmerkmalen aus dem Survey. Insgesamt wurden 10.200 vollständige Interviews erhoben – 7500 in Deutschland, 1400 in Frankreich und 1300 in den Niederlanden." (Autorenreferat

Origins Space Telescope science drivers to design traceability

The Origins Space Telescope (Origins) concept is designed to investigate the creation and dispersal of elements essential to life, the formation of planetary systems, and the transport of water to habitable worlds and the atmospheres of exoplanets around nearby K- and M-dwarfs to identify potentially habitable—and even inhabited—worlds. These science priorities are aligned with NASA’s three major astrophysics science goals: How does the Universe work? How did we get here? and Are we alone? We briefly describe the science case that arose from the astronomical community and the science traceability matrix for Origins. The science traceability matrix prescribes the design of Origins and demonstrates that it will address the key science questions motivated by the science case

Origins Space Telescope science drivers to design traceability

The Origins Space Telescope (Origins) concept is designed to investigate the creation and dispersal of elements essential to life, the formation of planetary systems, and the transport of water to habitable worlds and the atmospheres of exoplanets around nearby K-and M-dwarfs to identify potentially habitable-and even inhabited-worlds. These science priorities are aligned with NASA\u27s three major astrophysics science goals: How does the Universe work? How did we get here? and Are we alone? We briefly describe the science case that arose from the astronomical community and the science traceability matrix for Origins. The science traceability matrix prescribes the design of Origins and demonstrates that it will address the key science questions motivated by the science case

Origins Space Telescope: Baseline mission concept

The Origins Space Telescope will trace the history of our origins from the time dust and heavy elements permanently altered the cosmic landscape to present-day life. How did galaxies evolve from the earliest galactic systems to those found in the Universe today? How do habitable planets form? How common are life-bearing worlds? To answer these alluring questions, Origins will operate at mid-and far-infrared (IR) wavelengths and offer powerful spectroscopic instruments and sensitivity three orders of magnitude better than that of the Herschel Space Observatory, the largest telescope flown in space to date. We describe the baseline concept for Origins recommended to the 2020 US Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The baseline design includes a 5.9-m diameter telescope cryocooled to 4.5 K and equipped with three scientific instruments. A mid-infrared instrument (Mid-Infrared Spectrometer and Camera Transit spectrometer) will measure the spectra of transiting exoplanets in the 2.8 to 20 μm wavelength range and offer unprecedented spectrophotometric precision, enabling definitive exoplanet biosignature detections. The far-IR imager polarimeter will be able to survey thousands of square degrees with broadband imaging at 50 and 250 μm. The Origins Survey Spectrometer will cover wavelengths from 25 to 588 μm, making wide-area and deep spectroscopic surveys with spectral resolving power R ∼ 300, and pointed observations at R ∼ 40,000 and 300,000 with selectable instrument modes. Origins was designed to minimize complexity. The architecture is similar to that of the Spitzer Space Telescope and requires very few deployments after launch, while the cryothermal system design leverages James Webb Space Telescope technology and experience. A combination of current-state-of-the-art cryocoolers and next-generation detector technology will enable Origins\u27 natural background-limited sensitivity