How the Great Recession Affected the Labour Market Prospects of Young Adults of Different Social Origins in Europe

The Matthew effect in sociology postulates a process of cumulative (dis)advantage between subgroups of different social origins. To what extent and in which cases this process takes place is unclear. This article analyzes whether there was a Matthew effect after the Great Recession. It does so measuring the evolution of the gap in earnings and unemployment between young men and women from different social origins. Based on a difference-in-differences design with the EU-SILC data, this article analyzes the social-origin gap for the six most populous EU countries, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK. Results show an increase in the social-origin gap in earnings only for young men (25-34) in the UK and possibly Italy, but not in the rest of the countries. There is no increase in the social-origin gap in terms of unemployment rates. These findings seem to refute the Matthew Effect hypothesis.