Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2004
  • Article
  • Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

Sources of Structural Inequality in Managerial Labor Markets

By: Rakesh Khurana and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:19
ShareBar

Abstract

This article proposes two mechanisms that allow actors to obtain unearned advantages in labor markets. The first mechanism is consistent with collusive closure arguments. However, it questions the assumption that those who seek to benefit from collusive closure will always initiate it. Instead, it suggests that under certain cultural conditions, closure may arise through a series of self-reproducing social constructions that restrict access to a position to those who conform to certain socially defined criteria. The second mechanism is consistent with Sørensen's discussion of the role of composite rents in generating unearned advantages. Whereas Sørensen focused on composite rents between actors and productive assets, the mechanism presented here suggests that actors can obtain unearned advantages even if workers are not specific to productive assets, as long as there are composite rents between these productive assets. Data in support of the models are provided from the executive labor market.

Keywords

Management; Labor; Markets

Citation

Khurana, Rakesh, and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski. "Sources of Structural Inequality in Managerial Labor Markets." Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 21 (2004): 169–187.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Rakesh Khurana

Organizational Behavior
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • February 2018
    • Faculty Research

    Still Leading Series—Issues in Transitioning to New Forms of Service Later in Life

    By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Rakesh Khurana, James Honan and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
    • June 2017
    • History of Political Economy

    The Social Trajectory of a Finance Professor and the Common Sense of Capital

    By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana
    • 2015
    • Faculty Research

    Studying Elites in Institutions of Higher Education

    By: Scott Snook and Rakesh Khurana
More from the Authors
  • Still Leading Series—Issues in Transitioning to New Forms of Service Later in Life By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Rakesh Khurana, James Honan and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
  • The Social Trajectory of a Finance Professor and the Common Sense of Capital By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana
  • Studying Elites in Institutions of Higher Education By: Scott Snook and Rakesh Khurana
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College