Parallel Lives: Birth, Childhood and Adolescent Influences on Career Paths 1 January 2003 Michael Anyadike-Danes and Duncan McVicar Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre 22-24 Mount Charles, Belfast BT7 1NZ Tel: +44 (0) 28 9026 1800 Fax: +44 (0) 28 9033 0054 E-mail: m.anyadike-danes@qub.ac.uk E-mail: d.mcvicar@qub.ac.uk 1 This paper is part of the NIERC Research Programme on Human Resources and Economic Development for which we gratefully acknowledge the support of the Northern Ireland Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and of Finance and Personnel. Thanks also to the ESRC UK Data Archive for access to the data, and Gareth Wright and Garry Dane for excellent research assistance. All views are those of the authors.