Occupational attainment of men in Britain

The occupational attainment of men aged 33 is examined using longitudinal cohort data. We find that family background and early child development has a much stronger effect on occupational attainment than found in previous studies For Britain. Tests in maths and reading taken at age 7, 11, and 16 provide important information regarding the likelihood of occupational success. Our results appear to be insensitive to whether we measure attainment using mean earnings or occupational status. Failure to control for unobserved person-specific fixed effects causes significant downward bias in estimated returns to educational qualifications acquired after age 23.