| Science policy in the United States between 1958 and 1972 was intended to influence the research and development (R&D) labor force indirectly, through government funding. An event history analysis of professional R&D jobs in five scientific disciplines shows that, while federal funding influences the job mobility of scientists and engineers, other social and economic factors are also significant in explaining mobility patterns.;Federal funding significantly decreases the rates of job mobility in all disciplines during the period, stabilizing the employment structure.;Indicators of reward-resource arguments--salary, age, and education--significantly affect job mobility. Consistent with human capital and job matching arguments, salary and age significantly reduce mobility. Education is significant only in life science, physical science, and engineering, where higher education leads to increased mobility.;Indicators of limited opportunity arguments--socioeconomic background, sex, and ethnicity--show mixed empirical results. In engineering and physical science, higher father's education significantly increases mobility, consistent with cultural capital arguments about socioeconomic background. Significant differences in mobility rates of men and women occur in life science, social science, and mathematical science, although no sex differences are observed in engineering and physical science. Minority workers exhibit significantly lower mobility than American-born whites in social science and engineering; the effects are marginally significant in social science and mathematical science.;Labour markets also significantly affect mobility. In engineering and physical science, a neo-institutional model, which accounts for the degree of government oversight, fits the data best. Social science and life science are best fit by performance sectors, which highlight the importance of universities as employers for these disciplines. Mathematical science is best fit by a model of industrial sectors, consistent with differential expansion of the economy that disproportionately affected this discipline.;In general, federal funding has acted to institutionalize R&D in the economy and stabilize employment; however, it has not insulated workers from general socioeconomic factors such as human capital, discrimination and labour markets. |
