Overview
Daniel Oesch is a labor sociologist at the University of Geneva (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences / FORS, and the Institute of Social Sciences). His research focuses on occupational change, labor market inequality, class structure, and welfare state politics in comparative European perspective. He is best known for the Oesch class schema (a 17-category occupational class scheme based on employment relations and task content) and for his cross-national work on occupational polarization in Europe.
Key Contributions
- Cross-national occupational change (Oesch and Rodriguez Menes 2010, MPRA WP 21040): Applied the Wright-Dwyer (2003) quintile methodology to Britain, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland 1990–2008 using individual-level LFS data. Found universal top-quintile upgrading and universal middle collapse (consistent with routinization), but bottom-quintile expansion only in Britain and Spain — not Germany or Switzerland. The divergence is explained by wage-setting institutions: compressed wage floors in Germany and Switzerland price low-paid interpersonal service jobs out of the market. All of Britain's Q1 expansion attributable to immigrant workers downgrading. See Occupational Polarization and Routine-Biased Technological Change.
Related
Sources