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Modelling socioeconomic trajectories: An optimal matching approach

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posted on 2018-12-19, 11:41 authored by Juliet StoneJuliet Stone, Gopalakrishnan Netuveli, David Blane
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to describe the use of sequence analysis to model trajectories of life-course economic activity status, within a broader research agenda aimed at improving understanding of the relationship between socioeconomic position and health. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis used data on 288 participants of the Boyd Orr Stratified Sub-Sample, comprising a combination of prospective and retrospective information on economic activity status, as well as health in early old age. Economic activity was coded as a time-based sequence of states for each participant based on six-month periods throughout their lives. Economic activity was classified as: pre-labour market; full-time employment; part-time employment; housewife; made redundant; stopped work due to illness; retired; other unemployed; or not applicable. Optimal matching analysis was carried out to produce a matrix of distances between each sequence, which was then used as the basis for cluster analysis. Findings – The optimal matching analysis resulted in the classification of individuals into five economic activity status trajectories: full-time workers (transitional exit), part-time housewives, career breakers, full-time workers (late entry, early exit), and full-time housewives. Originality/value – The paper presents the case for using sequence analysis as a methodological tool to facilitate a more interdisciplinary approach to the measurement of the life-course socioeconomic position, in particular attempting to integrate the empirical emphasis of epidemiological research with the more theoretical contributions of sociology. This may in turn help generate a framework within which to examine the relationships between life-course socioeconomic position and outcomes such as health in later life. © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Economic and Social Research Council, award number PTA‐042‐2005‐00008.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies

Published in

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

Volume

28

Issue

5-6

Pages

217 - 230

Citation

STONE, J., NETUVELI, G. and BLANE, D., 2008. Modelling socioeconomic trajectories: An optimal matching approach. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 28(5-6), pp. 217 - 230.

Publisher

© Emerald

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2008

Notes

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1108/01443330810881268

ISSN

0144-333X

eISSN

1758-6720

Language

  • en