Abstract

This project studies how changes in “career values” shape political and social attitudes. Building on Petrova et al. (2025), we conceptualize the value of a job – denoted Vj – as the expected utility of holding job j given its wage profile, transition probabilities, and mobility prospects within the labor market. Using rich administrative data from the German Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) and survey data from the SOEP-ADIAB, we estimate job-specific value functions across firms, occupations, and local labor markets. We then link these career values to individuals’ political preferences, beliefs, and voting behavior. The project aims to provide a new micro-foundation for understanding how structural shifts in the labor market – such as technological change or structural decline – translate into changes social attitudes and political polarization.