Workers’ mobility across occupations: Complementary insights from the human capital, migration and social stratification literature.

Abstract

Purpose: A growing body of literature shows how intragenerational occupational mobility affects economic dynamics and social stratification. In this article the authors aim to carry out a structured review of this literature, outlining a systemic overview for more comprehensive research and public policies. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use methods from structured literature reviews and network science to reveal the segmented research landscape of occupational mobility literature. The authors made an in-depth analysis of the most important papers to summarize the main contributions of the literature and identify research gaps. Findings: The authors reveal a segmented research landscape around three communities: (1) human capital theory, (2) social stratification theory and (3) migration studies. Human capital research uses microfounded mathematical modeling to understand the relationship between skills and mobility. Nevertheless, it cannot explain social segregation and generally does not focus on the importance of local labor demand. Social stratification research can explain the social and institutional barriers to occupational mobility. Migration research studies the relationship between migration, labor demand and social mobility. Originality/value: This paper is the first literature review that uses network analysis to perform a systematic review of the intragenerational occupational mobility literature. Moreover, this review identifies opportunities for mutual learning and research gaps in the research landscape.