Trends in social mobility in postrevolution China

An urban-rural comparison of intergenerational occupational mobility offers valuable insights into the social mobility in China. Based on the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2014–2022, we adopt the transition matrix and Altham statistic to compare the intergenerational occupational mobility between urban and rural areas. Our findings indicate that intergenerational occupational mobility is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In urban areas, mobility is more prevalent in middle- and high-prestige occupations, whereas rural areas show greater movement in low-prestige jobs. Within both urban and rural regions, younger birth cohorts exhibit higher intergenerational mobility. Additionally, migrants experience greater mobility than non-migrants, and men have higher mobility than women. There is no direct correlation between intergenerational mobility in education, occupation, and income. The policy implications of this study include promoting household registration reform, enhancing the equity of public services, and strengthening career support for women, thereby facilitating population mobility, ensuring equal opportunities, and fostering social mobility.

Social mobility in traditional China, particularly during the last two dynasties, Ming (1368–1644) and Ch'ing (1644–1911), for which ample data are available, deserves systematic study by both Chinese and Western historians and social scientists. It is remarkable to observe that in a meticulously “regulated” society such as traditional China's, there was probably a greater amount of vertical mobility, both upward and downward, than is usually found in pre-modern and modern societies of the West. What makes this more striking is the fact that it occurred in a society which for twenty-five centuries believed in the inequality of men. For this reason alone the question of social mobility in traditional China should be of more than usual interest to theoretical sociologists with a comparative approach to their subject. Owing to the author's limited knowledge of Western sociology and also because of limitations of space, this article deals mainly with China, although brief comparisons with pre-modern and modern Western societies will be attempted at certain points.

Over the past half century, Chinese society has seen some very significant social, political and economic changes. These social, political and economic changes gave rise on each occasion to an unprecedented process of social mobility and a transformation of the country's social structure. The two periods, before and after the economic reforms, produced two fundamentally different models of mobility. Before the reforms, the pathways and obstacles to social mobility were controlled by the state by means of a series of institutional arrangements. Examination of the intergenerational and intragenerational mobility rates shows that the social structure has apparently become more flexible since the reforms. These mobility pathways and the characteristics of social mobility in China show that differences in socio-economic status are tending to become entrenched, that new social classes are emerging and that the boundaries between social classes are becoming more sharply defined. Keywords:China; economic reforms; intragenerational mobility models; social class; social mobility

China’s rapid economic growth since the late 1980s has been accompanied by great economic and social transformations, which have resulted in a sharp increase in income inequality. This article contributes to the literature of social mobility in China by examining the impact of parental education on the education of their children. Using the 1990 and 2000 Chinese Population Censuses, we employ nonparametric estimation strategies to provide a systematic investigation of intergenerational transmission of education in urban China. We find evidence of increasing parents–children educational correlations. Our results raise concerns regarding economic inequality in urban China as high intergenerational persistence of education is expected to be a barrier to equal opportunities in children’s education attainments and their future labour market outcomes.

The Nationwide Unified Examination for Admissions to General Universities and Colleges in China, or Gaokao (NECC), is the world’s largest standardized examination, the basis of China’s educational selection system, and an important mechanism for social class mobility in China. It is also an important mechanism for social mobility in China. While achieving formal equity, the Gaokao system has always faced deep-seated institutional contradictions such as unequal distribution of educational resources and opportunities. In this paper, we use literature and data analysis and case analysis to analyze educational equity and inequality of opportunity in the Gaokao system based on the operational mechanism of the Gaokao in China, the design logic of the Gaokao policy, and the history of its change; we explore the role and limitations of the Gaokao system in educational equity and its impact on social mobility; and we reflect on and reveal the challenges that the Gaokao system will face in the future, so as to provide a basis for the construction of a more equitable and theoretical education system. It also reflects on and reveals the challenges it faces in the future in order to provide theoretical and practical references for the construction of a more equitable and reasonable education system.

Impacts of education policies on intergenerational education mobility in China

This paper presents evidence on intergenerational educational and occupational mobility in Rural China over a period of 14 years (1988-2002). To understand whether the estimated intergenerational persistence can be driven solely by unobserved heterogeneity, we implement biprobit sensitivity analysis (Altonji et al. (2005)) and heteroskedasticity based identification of Klein and Vella (2009). The empirical results show that there have been dramatic improvements in occupational mobility from agriculture to non-farm occupations; a farmer’s children are not any more likely to become farmers in 2002, even though there was significant persistence in occupation choices in 1988. In contrast, the intergenerational mobility in educational attainment has remained largely unchanged for daughters, and it has deteriorated significantly for sons. There is strong evidence of a causal effect of parental education on a son’s schooling in 2002. We provide some possible explanations for the dramatic divergence between occupational and educational mobility in rural China from 1988 to 2002.

Purpose Infancy and early childhood are critical stages for the development of both cognitive and socioemotional skills, which are predictive of subsequent academic success, labor market outcomes, and socioeconomic achievement. Empirical research both in China and in other countries has revealed that nurturing quality is increasingly divergent among social classes, leading to intergenerational accumulation of advantage/disadvantage, declining social mobility, and exacerbating class inequality. The article aims to systematically examine existing theoretical and empirical research on early childhood development and social mobility and provide a holistic comparative and analytical framework for future research in the context of China. Design/Approach/Methods This article systematically reviews relevant theories and empirical research in the field and provides preliminary findings of early childhood education investment in China, using the data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Specifically, the article focuses on the differences in early childhood education investment and child development among families of different socioeconomic statuses and discusses the potential impact of these differences on children's future development. Findings The findings of this study reveal distinct patterns in early childhood education investment and child development across diverse socioeconomic strata in China. China's initiatives to enhance children's education and human capital have robust theoretical foundations and timely policy implications. However, despite the ongoing efforts, early childhood parenting and education programs lack systematic research, emphasizing the urgent need for intervention programs and comprehensive databases to inform evidence-based policymaking. Originality/Value The article concludes with a comprehensive analytical framework for the study of early childhood development and social mobility in China, which has implications for promoting human capital investment and facilitating social mobility.

Despite the significant political, economic and geographical diversity in China, there is limited research on spatial differences in intergenerational mobility in China. This research aims to fill this gap by exploring the spatial and temporal dimensions of intergenerational educational mobility in China. The data used for the analysis is the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a nationally representative longitudinal general social survey. The analysis incorporates both relative and absolute mobility measures to provide a comprehensive description of intergenerational educational mobility. The results reveal substantial regional differences in intergenerational educational mobility across various economic zones in China, with a rising geographic inequality over time. The southwest and northeast regions stand out as the areas where the educational prospects of the young generation have become not only bleaker but dependent more on their parents. Additionally, this study presents the first education Great Gatsby Curve for China, highlighting the strong relationship between intergenerational mobility and education inequality at the regional level, particularly after China's market reform. The findings highlight the need for regionally targeted policies and levelling up agendas to promote educational opportunities in low‐mobility regions.

This article examines modern concepts of social stratification and social mobility in China. The approaches of modern Chinese sociologists Lu Xueyi, Li Qiang and Gu Hui, who belong to different generations of scientists, are analyzed. Each of them puts forward his unique concept, relying on a large number of statistical data and sociological approaches. In the course of reasoning, Lu Xueyi, Li Qiang and Gu Hui are examining various social problems that arise as a result of changes in the processes of social mobility and the reform of the social structure that cause dissatisfaction among part of the population. Modern Chinese society can not be called stable. One of the main problems of Lu Xueyi calls the lag of social development from economic development, which generates social crises. Li Qiang analyzes the barriers to vertical mobility, among which is the registration system for the place of residence, unequal access to education and jobs. Gu Hui in his studies draws attention to the fact that the Chinese model of stratification and social mobility is becoming increasingly closed, emphasizes the importance of family origin, increases the closure of the transition between social classes, especially the transition to the upper class. Independently from each other, the aforementioned scholars come to the conclusion that since the reform policy (1978) the coefficient of social mobility in China has increased, and the opportunities for mobility have also increased, however, moving along social mobility channels is not always unhindered, the phenomenon of securing the social structure of modern society occurs.

This paper studies the impact of an increase in higher education tuition on intergenerational mobility in China. We develop a theoretical model for the parental decision about the investment on education of children to illustrate the impact from the perspective of borrowing constraint. We consider the Chinese college tuition and subsidy reform around 1986 as a quasi-natural experiment for identifying the policy effect of the reform on intergenerational educational mobility by using the data from the census of 2000 and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). We find that an increase in the education burden induced by the reform of college tuition has reduced intergenerational educational mobility, and it is more noticeable in regions with a relatively higher increment in the tuition fee. Our results are robust with consideration of the co-residence bias, government investment in elementary education, and the higher education expansion.

Abstract:This paper looks at social mobility in China and Britain. It explores whether the rapid economic development in China in the last thirty years has brought its mobility closer to that in Britain. It also examines the effects of China’s household registration system (hukou) on people’s mobility chances. Using national representative surveys in the two countries, we found a convergence in total mobility in the two countries but higher levels of inequality in China in terms of relative mobility. Chinese women faced the greatest disadvantages. The prime driver for social inequality in China was the hukou system. Rural people in China had very limited opportunities for education but even those who had similar levels of education were still very much hampered by the hukou penalty in trying to gain access to advantaged positions. Both societies are highly unequal but China has an additional barrier.

Social Mobility in China: Status Careers Among the Gentry in a Chinese Community. By Yang-teh Chow. New York: Atherton Press, 1966. xvi, 300 pp. Bibliography, Index, Tables, and Illustrations. - Volume 26 Issue 4

When children are able to progress beyond their parents’ education level, that is, when there is upward intergenerational education mobility—they are more likely to have better opportunities and access than their parents in terms of jobs and income. For any nation, it is important to understand the trajectory of intergenerational education mobility and ask: Has it been increasing? In the case of Bangladesh, our study is the first to use nationally representative household survey data to explore the trend of intergenerational education mobility. We compute intergenerational education mobility separately for three different years—2005, 2010 and 2016, and find that intergenerational education mobility has, from 2005 to 2016, significantly decreased in terms of fathers’ education. This is surprising given that the expansion of education has been a target both policy-wise and action-wise—for Bangladesh over the last few decades. The finding in terms of mothers’ education—that intergenerational education mobility has significantly increased from 2005 to 2016—makes more sense given the focus on female education expansion in Bangladesh over the years. Moreover, our results indicate that daughters, in general, have been progressing better compared to sons in terms of intergenerational (father–child) education mobility and that children of fathers with higher education levels progressed better than children of fathers with lower education levels. We suggest policies accordingly and emphasize the need to investigate the reasons behind the father–child education immobility over time in Bangladesh.

Sibling Correlations and Intergenerational Mobility in Latin America