Urban Escalators and Interregional Elevators: The Difference that Location, Mobility, and Sectoral Specialisation Make to Occupational Progression

Abstract

T his p ap e r uses evidence from the L o n g itu d in al Study fo r E n g lan d an d W ales to exam ine the influence on occu p atio n al advancem ent o f the city-region o f residence (an escalator effect) a n d o f relocation betw een city-regions (an elevator effect). It show s b o th effects to be substantively im p o rta n t, th o u g h less so th a n the secto r o f em ploym ent. E levator effects are fo u n d to be associated w ith m oves from slacker to tig h ter regional la b o u r m arkets. E sca la to r effects, on the o th e r h an d , are linked w ith residence in larger u rb an agglom erations, th o u g h n o t specifically L o n d o n , b u t also across m o st o f the G re a te r S o u th E ast and in second-order o r th ird -o rd e r city-regions elsewhere. Sectoral escalator effects are fo u n d to be p articularly stro n g in know ledge-intensive activities, w ith co n c en tra tio n s o f these, as o f o th e r advanced jo b types (ra th e r th a n o f g rad u a te labour), co n trib u tin g strongly to the m ore dynam ic city-regional escalators. T h e im p act o f the geographic effects is fo u n d to vary substan tially w ith b o th o bserved a n d unobserved personal characteristics, being su b stantially stro n g er for the young an d fo r th o se w hose unobserved attrib u tes (eg, dynam ic h u m a n capital) generally b o o st rates o f o ccu p atio n al advance.Keywords: escalator region, elevator effect, city-region, la b o u r m ig ratio n , career progression 1 In tro d u c tio n The 'resurgence of cities' announced around the time of the millennium, in countries which had been early adopters of mass urbanisation but where for some decades it had gone out of fashion, owed much to the sense that in these societies (as well as in the newly urbanising Global South) this was where bright young people wanted to live. That enthusiasm may not actually have been new, but over the past forty years or so the kinds of people who tend to congregate in cities out of choice-particularly the unmarried, those with higher education, and/or with cosmopolitan origins-have become very much more numerous. Their preferences for living in and close to the heart of bigger communities, have several aspects, including (for many) a bias toward urban rather than rural leisure pursuits, and a taste for more tolerant (even Bohemian) communities [as Florida (2002) argued]-but also a perception that these are the best places in which to 'get on', in career terms.

Family, Place and the Intergenerational Transmission of Union Membership

“…Patterns of migration are complex, but are most commonly observed as the movement of these workers towards ‘escalator regions’; most notably London and its neighbouring commuting regions (Fielding ; Gordon et al . ). These centres of economic growth attract human capital that subsequently experiences relatively upward social mobility compared to those who remain within more peripheral areas.…”

Do the most successful migrants emulate natives in well‐being? The compound effect of geographical and social mobility

“…Notably, recent research in human geography, sociology and economics has brought new developments concerning the interface between these two dimensions of movement. For example, human geographers in the UK have picked up the line of research started by Fielding () on the regional ‘escalator effect’ and explored different forms of spatial influence on people’s career development (Champion, Coombes and Gordon ; Findlay et al ; Gordon, Champion and Coombes ). Unlike human geographers, who mainly focus on regional differences in labour market opportunities, sociologists are more interested in whether the opportunities are equally accessible to people from different social backgrounds.…”

Interregional mobility of talent in Spain: The role of job opportunities and qualities of places during the recent economic crisis

“…Considering the 'escalator/ elevator' effects in terms of the access to specific job opportunities that permit acquiring tacit knowledge and connections (i.e. social networks), provided by particular communities to their most ambitious individuals (Gordon et al, 2015), a local indicator has been included. This is based on the significant migration premium in the transitions from non-creative occupations to creative ones (see Section 5); instead of the earnings approach, developed in one of the few studies available for large Spanish cities (De la Roca and Puga, 2017).…”

“…More recently, a distinction has been made between 'escalator' effects, experienced by residents of cityregions favoured by pure agglomeration economies and the concentration of more dynamic industries, and 'elevator effects', experienced by migrants, reflecting inter-regional variations in the pressure of labour demand. As a result, a combination of personal and contextual factors would explain the higher rates of occupational progression in some 'escalator regions'; namely, the ambitions of young individuals and also the particular role of 'practice communities' in providing them with access to the premium (in terms of occupations or earnings gains), according to workers' capability and their networks (Gordon et al, 2015).…”

“…In particular, old industrial cities striving to reinvent themselves in the context of global economic restructuring have attracted some of the attention (Kempner, 2008). This was exactly the target of our prior approach to the question (Sánchez-Moral, 2017), which already uncovered some trends that deserve a more holistic and complex analysis at the Spanish urban system level, while considering the scale effects and the role of attracting forces, including forms of spatial and labour mobility in line with the so-called 'escalator model' (Fielding, 1992;Gordon et al, 2015).…”