The intergenerational transfer of public sector jobs: Nepotism or social reproduction?

Abstract

Do kinship ties affect one’s chances of acquiring a public sector job and do they, in such cases, trump formal qualifications? These questions have been subject to scrutiny by both scholars and policymakers, but to date, mainly as a result of data limitations, the empirical evidence is scarce and unclear. This paper explores the role played by kinship in relation to qualified administrative public sector jobs in the context of Sweden, an egalitarian society and top-ranked meritocracy. The paper examines whether an individual’s chance of acquiring a public sector job increases if one of his/her parents are already employed in the same part of the public sector and/or organisation. The analysis employs detailed register data that contain complete information on kinship relations. It focuses on state agencies and municipalities in Sweden between 2001 and 2016 and explores the mechanisms behind the intergenerational transfer of public sector jobs in an egalitarian and low-corruption setting. The results reveal that the probability of acquiring a job in the state sector in general increases by about 5-6 percentage points when a parent is employed in a qualified position at a state agency. A parental effect, although lower, is also found for employment in the less prestigious local government. This parental effect can in part be explained by an increased probability of obtaining employment specifically at the parent’s agency and by a higher probability of having acquired valuable work experience prior to graduation.