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Leapfrogging the Melting Pot? European Immigrants' Intergenerational Mobility across the Twentieth Century

By on December 17, 2021 in Articles

Kendal Lowrey, Jennifer Van Hook, James D. Bachmeier, Thomas B. Foster

Sociological Science December 17, 2021
10.15195/v8.a23

Abstract

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During the early twentieth century, industrial-era European immigrants entered the United States with lower levels of education than the U.S. average. However, empirical research has yielded unclear and inconsistent evidence about the extent and pace of their integration, leaving openings for arguments that contest the narrative that these groups experienced rapid integration and instead assert that educational deficits among lower-status groups persisted across multiple generations. Here, we advance another argument, that European immigrants may have “leapfrogged” or exceeded U.S.-born non-Hispanic white attainment by the third generation. To assess these ideas, we reconstituted three-generation families by linking individuals across the 1940 census; years 1973, 1979, and 1981 to 1990 of the Current Population Survey; the 2000 census; and years 2001 to 2017 of the American Community Survey. Results show that most European immigrant groups not only caught up with U.S.-born whites by the second generation but surpassed them, and this advantage further increased in the third generation. This research provides a new understanding of the time to integration for twentieth-century European immigrant groups by showing that they integrated at a faster pace than previously thought, indicative of a process of accelerated upward mobility.
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Kendal Lowrey: Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University
E-mail: kll289@psu.edu

Jennifer Van Hook: Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University
E-mail: jxv21@psu.edu

James D. Bachmeier: Department of Sociology, Temple University
E-mail: james.bachmeier@temple.edu

Thomas B. Foster: Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau
E-mail: thomas.b.foster@census.gov

Acknowledgments: We acknowledge assistance provided by the Russell Sage Foundation; the U.S. Census Bureau; the Population Research Institute at Penn State University, which is supported by an infrastructure grant by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD041025); and the National Institutes of Health under the Social Environments and Population Health Training Program (T-32HD007514), as well as Peter Catron for his helpful comments on our paper at the 2021 Population Association of America research conference and the 2021 Data-Intensive Research Conference.

Disclaimer: Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census Bureau’s Disclosure Review Board has reviewed this data product for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and have approved the disclosure avoidance practices applied to this release. DRB Approval Number: CBDRB-FY21-039.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Lowrey, Kendal, Jennifer Van Hook, James D. Bachmeier, and Thomas B. Foster. 2021. “Leapfrogging the Melting Pot? European Immigrants’ Intergenerational Mobility across the Twentieth Century.” Sociological Science 8: 480-512.
  • Received: October 22, 2021
  • Accepted: November 14, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Richard Breen
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a23


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Collaborative Practices in Crisis Science: Interdisciplinary Research Challenges and the Syrian War

By on December 10, 2021 in Articles

Fiona Greenland, Michelle D. Fabiani

Sociological Science December 10, 2021
10.15195/v8.a22

Abstract

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Crises present the scientific community with unusual demands, including the need for rapid solutions. This can translate into a greatly compressed time frame that curtails data collection and analysis procedures used in “normal” science. Researchers cope with these demands, while maintaining professional standards and a personal commitment to producing reliable work, by engaging in what we call performed separations. These are practices that allow people to adopt an ethical epistemic position while operating within constrained and urgent research situations. We distill the core features and effects of performed separations in the case of experts working to study archaeological looting in wartime Syria. We look specifically at how different practices of control allow for varying degrees of separation and the production of knowledge claims. By extension, performed separations facilitate making ethical claims about one’s role in the production of research and use of findings.
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Fiona Greenland: Department of Sociology, University of Virginia
E-mail: fg5t@virginia.edu

Michelle D. Fabiani: Criminal Justice Department, University of New Haven
E-mail: mfabiani@newhaven.edu

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Madeleine Peterson and Grant Tabler for research assistance and James Evans, William Greenland, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and questions. Earlier versions of this article were presented to the Human-Machine Intelligence group (HMI) at the University of Virginia and the Technology, Knowledge, and Society annual meeting in 2020. Support for this research was generously provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (award no. 1754992).

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Greenland, Fiona, and Michelle D. Fabiani. 2021. “Collaborative Practices in Crisis Science: Interdisciplinary Research Challenges and the Syrian War.” Sociological Science 8: 455-479.
  • Received: April 27, 2021
  • Accepted: June 13, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Mario Small
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a22


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Segregated in Social Space: The Spatial Structure of Acquaintanceship Networks

By on November 29, 2021 in Articles

Barum Park

Sociological Science November 29, 2021
10.15195/v8.a20

Abstract

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With deepening cleavages on several social dimensions, social fragmentation has become a major concern across the social sciences. This article proposes a spatial approach to study the segregation pattern of acquaintanceship ties across multiple social dimensions simultaneously. A Bayesian unfolding model is developed and fitted to the 2006 General Social Survey. Results suggests that the segregation pattern of reported acquaintanceship ties reflect consolidated socioeconomic inequalities. Furthermore, among the 13 analyzed social groups, gay and lesbian people were the least segregated group in 2006, implying that individuals with very different network compositions had similar probabilities to know someone who is gay or lesbian. Lastly, contradicting previous findings that ideology and religiosity segregate acquaintanceship networks to an extent that rivals race, it is found that race stands out as the dominant dimension that shapes the distribution of these relationships.
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Barum Park: Department of Sociology, Cornell University
E-mail: b.park@cornell.edu

Acknowledgments: I am grateful to Delia Baldassarri, Siwei Cheng, Ned Crowley, Paul DiMaggio, Mike Hout, Harris Hyun-Soo Kim, Byungkyu Lee, Jeff Manza, John Levi Martin, Oscar Stuhler, and LarryWu for their invaluable comments. This article was presented in the Inequality Workshop at New York University, the Annual Conference of the Association of Korean Sociologists in America in 2018, and the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in 2018. All remaining errors are my own.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Park, Barum. 2021. “Segregated in Social Space: The Spatial Structure of Acquaintanceship Networks.” Sociological Science 8: 397-428.
  • Received: August 15, 2019
  • Accepted: October 3, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Olav Sorenson
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a20


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The Link between Social and Structural Integration: Co- and Interethnic Friendship Selection and Social Influence within Adolescent Social Networks

By on November 22, 2021 in Articles

Georg Lorenz, Zerrin Salikutluk, Zsófia Boda, Malte Jansen, Miles Hewstone

Sociological Science November 22, 2021
10.15195/v8.a19

Abstract

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Assimilation theories argue that social ties with majority-group members enhance the structural integration of ethnic minority members, whereas under certain conditions, coethnic social ties can also benefit minority members’ socioeconomic outcomes. We examine these propositions through a social network perspective, focusing on friendship networks and educational expectations in adolescence, during which peer socialization is crucial. Longitudinal data from 1,992 adolescents in 91 classrooms allow us to investigate co- and interethnic social selection and social influence processes as well as their aggregated outcomes. In terms of friendship selection, we find that Turkishorigin minority adolescents in Germany have distinct preferences for friends with high educational expectations, among both co- and interethnic peers. In contrast, social influence on Turkish-minority adolescents’ educational expectations is not uniform: only majority-group friends exert a significant (positive) influence. Our results emphasize that bridging social capital gained from social ties with majority-group members enhances ethnic minority adolescents’ educational integration.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Georg Lorenz: Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
E-mail: Georg.Lorenz@iqb.hu-berlin.de

Zerrin Salikutluk: Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research (BIM), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
E-mail: Zerrin.Salikutluk@hu-berlin.de

Zsófia Boda: Department of Sociology and Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
E-mail: zsofia.boda@essex.ac.uk

Malte Jansen: Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Centre for International Student Assessment (ZIB)
E-mail: Malte.Jansen@iqb.hu-berlin.de

Miles Hewstone: University of Oxford
E-mail: Miles.Hewstone@new.ox.ac.uk

Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation (project ISONET, funding number 93 489). The responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Lorenz, Georg, Zerrin Salikutluk, Zsófia Boda, Malte Jansen, and Miles Hewstone. 2021. “The Link between Social and Structural Integration: Coand Interethnic Friendship Selection and Social Influence within Adolescent Social Networks.” Sociological Science 8: 371-396.
  • Received: March 3, 2021
  • Accepted: May 19, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Arnout van de Rijt
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a19


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Yes, Denmark Is a More Educationally Mobile Society than the United States: Rejoinder to Kristian Karlson

By on November 17, 2021 in Articles

Stefan B. Andrade, Jens-Peter Thomsen

Sociological Science November 17, 2021
10.15195/v8.a18

Abstract

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In this rejoinder to Kristian Bernt Karlson (KBK), we maintain that there are substantial differences in intergenerational educational mobility between Denmark and the United States. In fact, when we include additional parental information from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) for the United States, as suggested by KBK, the gap between Denmark and the United States increases. To confirm our findings, we show that the same conclusion about markedly higher educational mobility in Denmark holds when data from the General Social Survey are substituted for the NLSY97.
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Stefan B. Andrade: The Danish National Centre for Social Science Research
E-mail: sba@vive.dk

Jens-Peter Thomsen: The Danish National Centre for Social Science Research
E-mail: jpt@vive.dk

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Andrade, Stefan B., and Jens-Peter Thomsen. 2021. “Yes, Denmark Is a More Educationally Mobile Society than the United States: Rejoinder to Kristian Karlson.” Sociological Science 8: 359-370.
  • Received: September 19, 2021
  • Accepted: September 21, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Filiz Garip
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a18


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Is Denmark a Much More Educationally Mobile Society than the United States? Comment on Andrade and Thomsen, "Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Denmark and the United States" (2018)

By on November 17, 2021 in Articles

Kristian Bernt Karlson

Sociological Science November 17, 2021
10.15195/v8.a17

Abstract

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I evaluate Andrade and Thomsen (A&T)’s (2018) study, which concludes that Denmark is significantly more educationally mobile than the United States. I make three observations. First, A&T overstate the difference in educational mobility between Denmark and the United States. Both in international comparison and compared with differences in intergenerational income mobility, A&T’s reported country differences in educational mobility are negligible. For example, whereas income mobility estimates reported in the literature differ by 300 to 600 percent between the two countries, the corresponding educational mobility estimates that A&T report differ by 10 to 20 percent. Second, I provide evidence suggesting that A&T’s use of crude categorical education measures leads them to overstate these negligible differences. Third, A&T’s empirical analyses of the U.S. data contain several statistical and data-related flaws, some so severe that they potentially undermine the credibility of their analyses. In sum, A&T’s results are perfectly consistent with the existence of a mobility paradox very similar to what Sweden–United States comparisons show: although Denmark and the United States are dissimilar with respect to income mobility, they are similar with respect to educational mobility. Understanding the nature of this paradox should be a key concern for future mobility research.
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Kristian Bernt Karlson: Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen
E-mail: kbk@soc.ku.dk
Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Karlson, Kristian Bernt. 2021. “Is Denmark a Much More Educationally Mobile Society than the United States? Comment on Andrade and Thomsen, ‘Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Denmark and the United States’ (2018).” Sociological Science 8: 346-358.
  • Received: June 11, 2021
  • Accepted: July 11, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Filiz Garip
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a17


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Filial Intelligence and Family Social Class, 1947 to 2012

By on October 20, 2021 in Articles

Lindsay Paterson

Sociological Science October 20, 2021
10.15195/v8.a16

Abstract

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Intelligence, or cognitive ability, is a key variable in reproducing social inequality. On the one hand, it is associated with the social class in which a child grows up. On the other, it is a predictor of educational attainment, labor-market experiences, social mobility, health and well-being, and length of life. Therefore measured intelligence is important to our understanding of how inequality operates and is reproduced. The present analysis uses social surveys of children aged 10 to 11 years in Britain between 1947 and 2012 to assess whether the social-class distribution of intelligence has changed. The main conclusions are that, although children’s intelligence relative to their peers remains associated with social class, the association may have weakened recently, mainly because the average intelligence in the highest-status classes may have moved closer to the mean.
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Lindsay Paterson: School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
E-mail: lindsay.paterson@ed.ac.uk

Acknowledgments: The research was funded by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (grant number MRF-2017-002). I am grateful to Professor Ian J. Deary, director of the Lothian Birth Cohorts, University of Edinburgh, for data from the 1947 survey; to the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, and the principal investigators of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (doi: 10.5522/NSHD/Q101), for data from the 1957 survey; and to the UK Data Archive for data from the 1969, 1980, and 2012 surveys. I thank the study participants in all these surveys for their data, and also members of the scientific and data collection teams who have been involved in the data collection. I am grateful to Ian J. Deary and Roxanne Connelly for comments on a draft of the article.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Paterson, Lindsay. 2021. “Filial Intelligence and Family Social Class, 1947 to 2012.” Sociological Science 8: 325-345.
  • Received: August 13, 2021
  • Accepted: August 25, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Richard Breen
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a16


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Crisis and Uncertainty: Did the Great Recession Reduce the Diversity of New Faculty?

By on October 14, 2021 in Articles

Kwan Woo Kim, Alexandra Kalev, Frank Dobbin, Gal Deutsch

Sociological Science October 14, 2021
10.15195/v8.a15

Abstract

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The demographic composition of the U.S. professoriate affects student composition and, thus, the pipeline for professional and managerial jobs. Amid concern about the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the labor market, much remains unknown about how economic downturns affect faculty hiring and the demographic makeup of hires. We examine the effects of the Great Recession on faculty hiring. That crisis walloped the U.S. academic labor market. Tenure-track hires in four-year colleges and universities declined by 25 percent between 2007 and 2009, recovering slowly through 2015. Hires of black, Hispanic, and Asian American faculty declined disproportionately. Public institutions and research-oriented institutions, which faced the greatest resource challenges and uncertainty about the future, made the biggest cuts in the hiring of people of color. Our findings suggest that financial uncertainty led to a reversal in progress on faculty diversity. Faculty and administrators making hiring decisions in the years following the COVID-19 crisis should be aware of this pattern.
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Kwan Woo Kim: Department of Sociology, Harvard University
E-mail: kwanwookim@fas.harvard.edu

Alexandra Kalev: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University
E-mail: akalev@tauex.tau.ac.il

Frank Dobbin: Department of Sociology, Harvard University
E-mail: frank_dobbin@harvard.edu

Gal Deutsch: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University
E-mail: galdeutsch@mail.tau.ac.il

Acknowledgments: We thank the National Science Foundation (DGE-1444586) and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2013-10-26, G-2019-12369) for funding. Direct correspondence to KwanWoo Kim, Department of Sociology, Harvard University: kwanwookim@fas.harvard.edu.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Kim, Kwan Woo, Alexandra Kalev, Frank Dobbin, and Gal Deutsch. 2021. “Crisis and Uncertainty: Did the Great Recession Reduce the Diversity of New Faculty?” Sociological Science 8: 308-324.
  • Received: June 11, 2021
  • Accepted: July 3, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Sarah Soule
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a15


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Estimating Homophily in Social Networks Using Dyadic Predictions

By on August 2, 2021 in Articles

George Berry, Antonio Sirianni, Ingmar Weber, Jisun An, Michael Macy

Sociological Science August 2, 2021
10.15195/v8.a14

Abstract

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Predictions of node categories are commonly used to estimate homophily and other relational properties in networks. However, little is known about the validity of using predictions for this task. We show that estimating homophily in a network is a problem of predicting categories of dyads (edges) in the graph. Homophily estimates are unbiased when predictions of dyad categories are unbiased. Node-level prediction models, such as the use of names to classify ethnicity or gender, do not generally produce unbiased predictions of dyad categories and therefore produce biased homophily estimates. Bias comes from three sources: sampling bias, correlation between model errors and node degree, and correlation between node-level model errors along dyads. We examine three methods for estimating homophily: predicting node categories, predicting dyad categories, and a hybrid “ego–alter” approach. This analysis indicates that only the dyadic prediction approach is unbiased, whereas the node-level approach produces both high bias and high overall error. We find that node-level classification performance is not a reliable indicator of accuracy for homophily. Although this article focuses on a particular version of homophily, results generalize to heterophilous cases and other dyadic measures. We conclude with suggestions for research design. Code for this article is available at https://github.com/georgeberry/autocorr.
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George Berry: Department of Sociology, Cornell University
E-mail: geb97@cornell.edu

Antonio Sirianni: Department of Sociology, Dartmouth College
E-mail: antonio.d.sirianni@dartmouth.edu

Ingmar Weber: Qatar Computing Research Institute
E-mail: iweber@hbku.edu.qa

Jisun An: School of Computer and Information Systems, Singapore Management University
E-mail: jisun.an@acm.org

Michael Macy: Department of Sociology, Cornell University
E-mail: mwm14@cornell.edu

Acknowledgments: We thank Thomas Davidson, Mario Molina, Pablo Barberá, Christopher Cameron, Rebecca A. Johnson, Benjamin Cornwell, and Steven Strogatz; participants in the 2020 American Sociological Association section on Mathematical Sociology; the members of the Cornell Social Dynamics Lab; and the members of the Dartmouth Junior Faculty Writing Group for helpful comments and discussions.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Berry, George, Antonio Sirianni, Ingmar Weber, Jisun An, and Michael Macy. 2021. “Estimating Homophily in Social Networks Using Dyadic Predictions.” Sociological Science 8: 285-307.
  • Received: January 24, 2021
  • Accepted: April 4, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Filiz Garip
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a14


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Direct and Indirect Effects of Grandparent Education on Grandchildren's Cognitive Development: The Role of Parental Cognitive Ability

By on July 26, 2021 in Articles

Markus Klein, Michael Kühhirt

Sociological Science July 26, 2021
10.15195/v8.a13

Abstract

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The social stratification literature is inconclusive about whether there is a direct effect of grandparent resources on grandchildren’s educational outcomes net of parental characteristics. Some of this heterogeneity may be due to differences in omitted variable bias at the parental level. Our article accounts for a more extensive set of parent characteristics and explores the mediating role of parental cognitive ability in more detail. It further tackles methodological challenges (treatmentinduced mediator–outcome confounders, treatment–mediator interaction) in assessing any direct influences of grandparents by using a regression-with-residuals approach. Using the 1970 British Cohort Study, our results show that the direct effect of grandparent education on grandchildren’s verbal and numerical ability is small and statistically nonsignificant. Parental cognitive ability alone can account for more than two-thirds (numerical ability) or half (verbal ability) of the overall grandparent effect. These findings stress the importance of cognitive ability for intergenerational social mobility processes.
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Markus Klein: School of Education, University of Strathclyde
E-mail: markus.klein@strath.ac.uk

Michael Kühhirt: Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, and Department of Social Sciences, Goethe-University Frankfurt
E-mail: michael.kuehhirt@uni-koeln.de

Acknowledgments: The authors gratefully acknowledge the participants in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) for providing their information; the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London, for collecting and managing the data; the Economic and Social Research Council for funding BCS70; and the UK Data Service for storing the data and making them available. Earlier versions of this research were presented at the International Sociological Association (ISA) World Congress in 2018 and the ISA RC28 Spring Meeting in 2021.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Klein, Markus, and Michael Kühhirt. 2021. “Direct and Indirect Effects of Grandparent Education on Grandchildren’s Cognitive Development: The Role of Parental Cognitive Ability.” Sociological Science 8:265-284.
  • Received: May 24, 2021
  • Accepted: June 22, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Richard Breen
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a13


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Genres, Objects, and the Contemporary Expression of Higher-Status Tastes

By on July 14, 2021 in Articles

Clayton Childress, Shyon Baumann, Craig M. Rawlings, Jean-François Nault

Sociological Science July 14, 2021
10.15195/v8.a12

Abstract

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Are contemporary higher-status tastes inclusive, exclusive, or both? Recent work suggests that the answer likely is both. And yet, little is known concerning how configurations of such tastes are learned, upheld, and expressed without contradiction. We resolve this puzzle by showing the affordances of different levels of culture (i.e., genres and objects) in the expression of tastes. We rely on original survey data to show that people of higher status taste differently at different levels of culture: more inclusively for genres and more exclusively for objects. Inclusivity at the level of genres is fostered through familial socialization, and exclusivity at the level of objects is fostered through formal schooling. Individuals’ taste configurations are mirrored in and presumably reinforce their adult social-structural positions. The results have important implications for understanding the subtle maintenance of status in an increasingly diverse and putatively meritocratic society.
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Clayton Childress: Department of Sociology, University of Toronto
E-mail: clayton.childress@utoronto.ca

Shyon Baumann: Department of Sociology, University of Toronto
E-mail: shyon.baumann@utoronto.ca

Craig M. Rawlings: Department of Sociology, Duke University
E-mail: craig.rawlings@duke.edu

Jean-François Nault: Department of Sociology, University of Toronto
E-mail: jf.nault@mail.utoronto.ca

Acknowledgments: All authors contributed equally to this work. Prior versions of this article were presented at the Toronto TheoryWorkshop and at the Sociology of Culture panel at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. We are grateful to attendees and fellow presenters in both of these venues for their trenchant feedback and comments. In particular, we also thank Jordan Foster, Jennifer Lena, Ann Mullen, Dan Silver, and Omar Lizardo for their time and attention in improving this work. The G7 workshop, per usual, also substantially contributed to the improvement of this work. All mistakes are our own. Direct correspondence to Craig M. Rawlings, Duke University Sociology Department, Reuben-Cooke Building Rm. 270, Durham, NC 27708; craig.rawlings@duke.edu.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Childress, Clayton, Shyon Baumann, Craig M. Rawlings, and Jean-François Nault. 2021. “Genres, Objects, and the Contemporary Expression of Higher-Status Tastes.” Sociological Science 8: 230-264.
  • Received: January 9, 2021
  • Accepted: February 4, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Gabriel Rossmann
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a12


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Competitive Exclusion versus Mimetic Isomorphism: An Identified Empirical Test

By on June 21, 2021 in Articles

William P. Barnett, Xiao Xiao, Yi Zhou

Sociological Science June 21, 2021
10.15195/v8.a11

Abstract

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Why are organizations sometimes so similar, and in other cases so different? For decades this question has been central to research on organizations, and two leading theories have answered the question very differently. Neo-institutional theory points to the importance of mimetic isomorphism, where organizations imitate one another as they navigate decisions in the context of uncertainty over what is regarded as legitimate action. By contrast, ecological theory argues that competitive exclusion explains the differences we see around us, as organizations repel one another when they vie for the same resources. Decades of empirical work have tended to confirm one or the other prediction, with little acknowledgement of their opposition. Furthermore, much of the existing empirical work is limited to descriptive studies that make little or no attempt to empirically identify their findings, leaving the empirical record open to concerns over endogeneity. This article conducts an identified empirical test in a context where the two arguments make opposing predictions. In an analysis of auditor selection after the collapse of Arthur Andersen, we find evidence of competitive exclusion but no evidence of mimetic isomorphism. Implications for the continued progress of organization theory are discussed.
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William P. Barnett: Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
E-mail: william.barnett@stanford.edu

Xiao Xiao: Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
E-mail: xxiao@gsm.pku.edu.cn

Yi Zhou: Center for Social Research, Peking University
E-mail: yizhou.ccer@gmail.com

Acknowledgments: Order of authorship is alphabetical. Correspondence to William Barnett (william.barnett@stanford.edu), or, for questions regarding the data analysis, correspondence to Yi Zhou (yizhou@pku.edu.cn). Research support was provided by the Stanford Graduate School of Business and by Peking University. Thanks for useful advice and comments from Jon Atwell, Özgecan Koçak, Balázs Kovács, Jesper Sørensen, and Olav Sorenson.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Barnett, William P., Xiao Xiao, and Yi Zhou. 2021. “Competitive Exclusion versus Mimetic Isomorphism: An Identified Empirical Test.” Sociological Science 8: 211-229.
  • Received: April 2, 2021
  • Accepted: May 5, 2021
  • Editors: Gabriel Rossman
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a11


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Neighborhood Isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

By on June 14, 2021 in Articles

Thomas Marlow, Kinga Makovi, Bruno Abrahao

Sociological Science June 14, 2021
10.15195/v8.a9

Abstract

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The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted Americans’ daily mobility, which could contribute to greater social stratification. Relying on SafeGraph cell phone movement data from 2019 and 2020, we use two indices proposed by Phillips and colleagues (2019) to measure mobility inequality between census tracts in the 25 largest U.S. cities. These measures capture the importance of hubs and neighborhood isolation in a network. In the earliest phases of the pandemic, neighborhood isolation rapidly increased, and the importance of downtown central business districts declined. Mobility hubs generally regained their importance, whereas neighborhood isolation remained elevated and increased again during the latter half of 2020. Linear regression models with city and week fixed effects find that new COVID-19 cases are positively associated with neighborhood isolation changes a week later. Additionally, places with larger populations, more public transportation use, and greater racial and ethnic segregation had larger increases in neighborhood isolation during 2020.
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Thomas Marlow: Center for Interacting Urban Networks (CITIES), New York University Abu Dhabi
E-mail: twm9710@nyu.edu

Kinga Makovi: Social Science Division, New York University Abu Dhabi
E-mail: km2537@nyu.edu

Bruno Abrahao: Business Division, New York University Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University
E-mail: bd58@nyu.edu

Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Byungkyu Lee, Philipp Brandt, and Clara G. Sears for their insightful feedback on earlier drafts. This work was supported by the NYUAD Center for Interacting Urban Networks (CITIES), funded by Tamkeen under the NYUAD Research Institute Award CG001 and by the Swiss Re Institute under the Quantum Cities initiative. Bruno Abrahao was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Grant 61850410536.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Marlow, Thomas, Kinga Makovi, and Bruno Abrahao. 2021. “Neighborhood Isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Sociological Science 8: 170-190.
  • Received: March 14, 2021
  • Accepted: April 22, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Mario Small
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a9


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Racial Differences in Women’s Role-Taking Accuracy: How Status Matters

By on June 7, 2021 in Articles

Tony P. Love, Jenny L. Davis

Sociological Science June 7, 2021
10.15195/v8.a8

Abstract

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Role-taking is the process of mentally and affectively placing the self in the position of another, understanding the world from the other’s perspective. Role-taking serves an expressive function within interpersonal interaction, supporting others to pursue instrumental tasks that are recognized, valued, and rewarded. In the present work, we compare role-taking accuracy between white women and black women across status-varying interactional arrangements. Data for this study come from a series of two laboratory experiments. Experiment 1 establishes racial differences in white and black women’s role-taking accuracy, showing that women of color are significantly more attuned to others within social encounters. Experiment 2 implements an intervention to undermine racial disparities in role-taking accuracy, showing that expressive labors equalize when black women are empowered within the social structure. Findings highlight the entwinement of status structures with interpersonal processes while demonstrating the efficacy and value of structural reforms.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Tony P. Love: Department of Sociology, University of Kentucky; School of Sociology, Australian National University
E-mail: tony.love@uky.edu

Jenny L. Davis: School of Sociology, Australian National University
E-mail: jennifer.davis@anu.edu.au

Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank the American Sociological Association for their funding of this research through the Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline (FAD) and the Australian National University for their funding through the Futures Scheme. Additional gratitude is due to Paige Adkins and Rachel Barczak for their assistance in conducting these studies.

  • Citation: Love, Tony P., and Jenny L. Davis. 2021. “Racial Differences in Women’s Role-Taking Accuracy: How Status Matters.” Sociological Science 8: 150-169.
  • Received: February 2, 2021
  • Accepted: March 6, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Sarah Soule
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a8


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Better in the Shadows? Public Attention, Media Coverage, and Market Reactions to Female CEO Announcements

By on May 17, 2021 in Articles

Edward Bishop Smith, Jillian Chown, and Kevin Gaughan

Sociological Science May 17, 2021
10.15195/v8.a7

Abstract

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Combining media coverage data from approximately 17,000 unique media outlets with the full population of CEO appointments for U.S. publicly traded firms between 2000 and 2016, we investigate whether female CEO appointments garner more public attention compared with male appointments, and if so, whether this increased attention can help make sense of the previously reported negative market reaction to these events. Contrary to prior reports, our data do not indicate that the appointments of female CEOs elicit overly negative market reactions, on average. Our results do highlight an important moderating role of public attention, however. We demonstrate that greater attention—even when exogenously determined—contributes to negative market reactions for female CEO appointments but positive market reactions for male CEOs, all else held constant. Additionally, female CEO appointments that attract little attention garner significant positive responses in the market, compared with both male CEOs drawing similarly limited levels of attention and female CEOs drawing high levels of attention. Our results help to reconcile contrasting empirical findings on the effects of gender in executive leadership and parallel recent work on anticipatory bias and second-order discrimination in alternative empirical contexts. Implications for research on attention, gender bias, and executive succession are discussed.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Edward Bishop Smith: Management and Organizations Department, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
E-mail: ned-smith@kellogg.northwestern.edu

Jillian Chown: Management and Organizations Department, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
E-mail: jillian.chown@kellogg.northwestern.edu

Kevin Gaughan: Management and Organizations Department, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (formerly)
E-mail: kevin.gaughan@northwestern.edu

Acknowledgments: We have benefitted from the advice of Jeanne Brett, Roberto Fernandez, Brayden King, Maxim Sytch, Ed Zajac, FilippoWezel, Ezra Zuckerman, and seminar participants at MIT, Harvard,Washington University, and Dartmouth. Correspondence may be directed to Ned Smith, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University 2211 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, ned-smith@kellogg.northwestern.edu.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Smith, Edward Bishop, Jillian Chown, and Kevin Gaughan. 2021. “Better in the Shadows? Public Attention, Media Coverage, and Market Reactions to Female CEO Announcements.” Sociological Science 8: 119-149.
  • Received: February 10, 2021
  • Accepted: March 7, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Sarah Soule
  • DOI: 10.15195/v8.a7


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