Investigating the Relationship Between Intergenerational Income Mobility and Higher Education: Comparison Among Urban, Rural and Migrants Groups in Contemporary China

Abstract

Intergenerational income equality involves in the intergenerational mobility. Moreover, higher education is always considered as key elements to stimulate intergenerational mobility. Thus, the ultimate goal of this study is to examine the relationship between intergenerational income mobility and higher education for three major groups, including urban residents, rural residents, and rural-urban migrants from a political economic perspective. Theoretically speaking, interactive autonomy-based Political Economic Theory has been utilized to elaborate the rationales of social and education stratification and solidification that implicitly impact the intergenerational income mobility for rural, urban and migrants’ families in contemporary China. Moreover, the findings from this study suggested that urban higher income group and rural higher income groups are significantly influenced by children’s length of education. In addition, father’s income has significantly impact on children’s income for urban higher income group, urban low-income group, rural high-income group, and rural low-income group. Moreover, father’s length of education has directly impact on children’s length of education for most of groups. Furthermore, father’s length of education has significant impact on father’s income for all groups. Additionally, based on the results from this study, relevant policy recommendations and suggestions have been provided to eliminate the gaps between intergenerational mobility and inequality of education access.