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The first chapter of my dissertation uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979 and its intergenerational component, the NLSY Child and Young Adult (CYA) supplement, to test the intergenerational transmission of teaching. The main findings suggest that teaching is in fact passed down within families: Children of teachers are seven percentage points more likely to become teachers compared to the children of non-teachers. However, the transmission of teaching is not uniform. The effect of mother's teaching status on child's teaching status is zero for Black sons. These findings suggest that the intergenerational transmission of teaching is one reason that the teaching profession remains disproportionately White and female.

The finding that teaching is transmitted across generations motivates the second chapter of my dissertation, which investigates more generally whether public sector employment is transmitted across generations. Using data from the NLSY and CYA, I test the intergenerational correlation coefficient for public sector work. Primary findings indicate that children of public sector mothers are five percentage points more likely to work in the public sector compared to children of non-public sector mothers, with no variation in terms of race or gender. These findings have implications for hiring and promotion practices within the ranks of the public sector.