Cumulative Advantage, Cumulative Disadvantage, and Evolving Patterns of Late-Life Inequality

Abstract

Increasing inequality among older people, and especially in cohorts approaching late life, presages upcoming financial challenges for elderly persons in the lower part of the income distribution. Implications of this increasingly high-inequality late-life environment need to be carefully evaluated as changes are considered in Social Security and other safety-net institutions, which moderate impacts of economic forces that drive increasingly disparate late-life economic outcomes.

STEM Degree Completion and First-Generation College Students: A Cumulative Disadvantage Approach to the Outcomes Gap

“…Based on these observations, we theorize that first-generation status may represent a convenient shorthand for a form of cumulative disadvantage (Crystal, 1986;Crystal & Shea, 1990;DiPrete & Eirch, 2006) and further, that this cumulative disadvantage may be uniquely felt by students on STEM pathways given the evidence of greater disparity in outcomes within these fields (NSF, 2015b). Cumulative disadvantage is a way of describing the increasing stratification of opportunities and outcomes across the life course: it holds that inequality can be explained by the interaction between demographics, variations in learning and development, and social systems (Crystal, Shea, & Reyes, 2016). To ascertain the presence of cumulative disadvantage, researchers examine differences in the way that people have: 1) interacted with social systems, 2) been exposed to known risks and known opportunities; and 3) made individual decisions about risks to avoid and opportunities to pursue (Ferraro & Shippe, 2009).…”

Education matters: cumulative advantages and disadvantages amongst Portuguese older men

“…The existing evidence suggests that old age is a period of life of significant socioeconomic inequalities. More, these inequalities are increasing (Crystal, Shea, & Reyes, 2017;Scherger, Nazroo, & Highs, 2011): 'At ages 65+, the least well-off 40% shared only 14% of total adjusted income by 2010, suggesting that the 'two worlds of ageing' phenomenon (Crystal, 1982) persists, with even greater disparities between prosperous and penurious elderly' (Crystal et al, 2017, p. 915). Those disparities are visible in several domains of life like, for instance, health status and wealth, and can be better understood from a life course perspective.…”

Protección pública frente a la crisis. El caso de los varones de 51 a 64 años en España, 1976-2016

“…De acuerdo con la teoría de acumulación de ventajas o desventajas, el nivel educativo está en la base de las desigualdades que se dan a lo largo de la carrera laboral y tiene un efecto acumulativo sobre las condiciones de empleabilidad y la relación con la actividad en los últimos años de vida laboral (Crystal et al 2017). Son notables las diferencias tanto en el acceso como en la permanencia en el mercado laboral asociadas al capital humano.…”

“…Sin embargo, la presión no es igual para todos los trabajadores, pues está contrastado que un mayor nivel educativo completado está asociado a una salida más tardía del mercado laboral (Garrido y Chuliá 2005;Garrido 2010). Las ventajas acumuladas a lo largo de su vida laboral (inserción, promoción y empleabilidad) les protegen de la presión del mercado (Crystal et al 2017), de manera que la probabilidad de permanecer ocupado es más elevada entre los hombres cuanto mayor es su nivel de instrucción.…”