Inequality, early adult life courses and economic outcomes at mid-life in comparative context

• Applicant: Professorin Anette Eva Fasang, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 360460695

This innovative project adopts a holistic approach to understanding the dynamics of inequality across the life-course. We analyze how education, labor market and family choices interact to structure accumulated advantage and disadvantageover the life course. Using panel data from five EU countries for over 20 years and cutting-edge statistical methods, including multichannel sequence analysis, we take a comparative approach to exploring how cross-country economic and institutional differences affect inequality outcomes and life courses.Early adulthood is a crucial period of transition where people face multiple choices about education, jobs, partnerships and childbearing, which determine future life. We focus on key turning points, examine their interrelation and explore the cumulative impact on individual and group inequalities. Focusing on transitions during early adulthood, into education, jobs and family formation, we address the following project call themes: Labor market and family trajectories and the growth of inequality, Early adult transitions into tertiary education, vocational training and economic activity and Early life influence andoutcomes.The research team of the PI, four CIs, postdoctoral fellows and PGR students will meet regularly and provides appropriate leadership, skills, and capacity building. Academic impact will be achieved by going beyond the state-of-the-art, the research producing new empirical findings and contributing to theory building. Potential for policy impact is high. We will establish early contact with key national and EU stakeholders and engage through meetings, the media, research briefings and social media.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Jani Erola; Professorin Susan Harkness; Professor Dr. Thomas Leopold; Professor Mads Meier Jaeger