To what degree does parent occupation cause a child’s occupational attainment? We articulate this causal question in the potential outcomes framework. Empirically, we show that adjustment for only two confounding variables substantially reduces the estimated association between parent and child occupation in a U.S. cohort. Methodologically, we highlight complications that arise when the treatment variable (parent occupation) can take many categorical values. A central methodological hurdle is positivity: some occupations (e.g., lawyer) are simply never held by some parents (e.g., those who did not complete college). We show how to overcome this hurdle by reporting summaries within subgroups that focus attention on the causal quantities that can be credibly estimated. Future research should build on the longstanding tradition of descriptive mobility research to answer causal questions.

中文翻译：

---

父母职业对儿童职业的因果效应：具有正性约束的多值处理

父母的职业在多大程度上影响了孩子的职业成就？我们在潜在结果框架中阐明了这个因果问题。从实证上讲，我们表明，仅对两个混杂变量的调整大大降低了美国队列中父母和孩子职业之间的估计关联。在方法论上，我们强调了当治疗变量（父母职业）可以采用许多分类值时出现的并发症。一个主要的方法论障碍是积极性：一些职业（例如律师）根本就没有被一些父母（例如，那些没有完成大学学业的人）所担任。我们展示了如何通过报告子组内的摘要来克服这一障碍，这些摘要将注意力集中在可以可信估计的因果量上。未来的研究应建立在描述性移动性研究的悠久传统之上，以回答因果问题。