In Corak and Piraino (2010, 2011) and Bingley, Corak, and Westergård-
Nielson (2012), my coauthors and I show that the intergenerational transmission
of employers is higher when fathers report self-employment income, and
presumably have control over a firm and hiring decisions. But we also show
that the patterns are much broader, and not due simply to firm ownership.
Other factors, like information about the labor market or “connections” (in the
sense used by Becker and Tomes) help to structure a child’s job search and play
a role in generating the intergenerational transmission of employers across the
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entire parental income distribution, but particularly at the top.