Intragenerational Mobility Research Articles

“He Was Able to Rely on Me”: Negotiating the Sibling Intragenerational Bargain among Latino First-generation College Student Families

Though some frameworks suggest that siblings deplete family resources, alternative conceptualizations suggest that siblings, particularly in working-class and minoritized families, are pivotal sources of educational support that may replenish familial capital. Drawing on 41 in-depth interviews with Latino first-generation college students, this study addresses how siblings negotiate educational support. This study builds and extends prior literature on familial capital by proposing that college attendance generates additional resources that (re)shape family obligations and expectations, a process I refer to as the sibling intragenerational bargain. In negotiating the sibling intragenerational bargain, Latino students seek to (1) contribute to the family’s intragenerational mobility by providing educational support and/or (2) repay sibling sacrifices and help with their academic success. Furthermore, birth order and sibling educational attainment shape how students negotiate the sibling intragenerational bargain. This study shows how Latino first-generation siblings (older and younger) are agentic producers of familial capital.

An unlevel playing field: Immigrant assimilation and welfare utilization

This paper investigates the existence and mechanisms of segmentation in the welfare assimilation process of first-generation immigrants in the Netherlands. Using longitudinal administrative data (2007–2015) from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), we estimate the welfare utilization trajectories of migrants over the working-age life course vis-à-vis two reference groups representing different economic segments from the population, namely: average Dutch natives and Dutch natives with low education level. Empirical evidence shows a predominant trend of mainstream assimilation; however, two findings with more concerning implications should be highlighted. Welfare assimilation into the economically disadvantaged segment is found to concentrate among first-generation immigrants characterized by structural and human capital disadvantages, despite the notable extent of upward intragenerational mobility observed. In the worst-case scenario, there seems to be a lack of welfare assimilation to the comparison segments, raising concerns over the prospective emergence of marginalized ethnic groups at the bottom of the economic ladder. The implications of this finding are twofold. Firstly, automatic closing of the migrant-native gap over time should not be presumed in the absence of a level playing field for all regardless of their migration backgrounds. Secondly, systematic discrepancies observed between refugees and other types of migrants in terms of welfare assimilation patterns and determinants point to the need to have a clear distinction between immigration policy and refugee policy, which explicitly avoids bundling all migrants as one homogenous group.

Grouping of Occupations Based on Intragenerational Mobility

Occupation is a key factor in human thinking, feeling, and behavior. Theoretically derived occupational groupings or classes are typically used to transform occupations into a variable suitable for statistical manipulations. We argue that such groupings are unlikely to produce groups that are homogeneous across a broad set of attributes. Instead, we offer a data-driven approach to identify groups of occupations based on respondents’ mobility data using network analysis. The vertices of the network are codes of occupations, and the edges reflect the number of transitions between them. Using modularity maximization, we identify four communities and evaluate the stability of the resulting partition. As an example demonstrating the efficiency of the resulting grouping, we present a comparison of the predictive power of this grouping and one of the generally accepted groupings of occupations, that is ESeG (European Socio-Economic Grouping), in relation to the human attitudes and values found in previous publications. The results indicate the preference of our grouping.

A Broken Social Elevator? How to Promote Social Mobility. OECD report (Paris, OECD Publishing, 2018)

The review presents OECD’s A Broken Social Elevator? How to Promote Social Mobility volume. Its primary aim is to identify the mechanisms that hinder social mobility, focusing in particular on inter-generational mobility and the lack of it. The mechanisms are presented in three groups – property, health, and education – which are not only mechanisms of mobility but also indicators of it. The three groups can, of course, be broken down purely analytically, but in reality, they are closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing. In addition to this, albeit with less emphasis, I also present the chapter on intra-generational mobility. I also discuss the possible consequences of low social mobility and make some critiques, first and foremost concerning the sometimes somewhat over-generalized conclusions of the book.

Climbing the economic ladder: Earnings inequality and intragenerational mobility among Thai formal workers

This paper investigates inequality and intragenerational economic mobility among formal workers in a developing country with large inequality. Understanding economic mobility is important because it shapes our perception of inequality. Despite its significance, evidence on intragenerational mobility, especially that based on administrative data, is relatively limited in developing countries. Using Thailand’s tax return data, we study the evolution of earnings inequality, estimate medium-term earnings mobility, and examine the heterogeneity of mobility across age, gender and employment arrangement. Our analysis yields three main findings. First, annual earnings inequality rises during the 2009–2018 period. We find that the inequality is largely permanent, and its increase is primarily driven by top-earnings workers. Second, medium-term mobility tends to be limited at both ends of the earnings distribution, with particularly pronounced persistence observed at the top decile. Our suggestive comparison indicates that Thailand’s earnings mobility is among the lowest in the pool of evidence from both developed and developing countries. Third, there is a considerable heterogeneity in mobility regarding employment arrangement. Workers in less-formal jobs have much lower upward mobility than those in more-formal employment. Our findings also indicate significant heterogeneity in mobility with respect to gender and age.

The intragenerational mobility of the top income earners during financial crises, a story of a cohort

In this study, we explore the dynamics of the intragenerational mobility of the top income earners during financial crises. We analyze panel data on the income levels of a cohort consisting of 22,601 individuals in Israel born between 1963 and 1973, for the period between 1995 and 2013. Studying a specific cohort allows us to focus on the changes caused by period effects, rather than cohort replacement distortions. We use common intragenerational mobility measurements before, during, and after two major recessions- the Dot.com crisis and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008- which occurred during the analyzed period. However, since these are usually descriptive, we adopt a methodology that enables us to calculate confidence intervals of these measurements and thus test for changes over time. Our results show if the two crises had any effect on the intragenerational mobility of the top income earners of the analyzed cohort, it was a minor and transitory effect.

Dynamic work trajectories and their interplay with family over the life course.

This review examines major bodies of literature, interrelated but usually considered separately, focused on work trajectories and their intersections with family dynamics through the life course. It begins with a consideration of the life course paradigm, which draws attention to the temporal dimensions of human lives, and recently developed analytic techniques that are well-suited to empirical investigation of life course transitions and trajectories over time. The review proceeds to examine empirical research on work career mobility (including both inter- and intra-generational mobility) measured as either trajectories of continuous outcomes or sequences of categorical outcomes, and their long-term consequences for socioeconomic attainment. Work-family trajectories are then addressed, focusing on the impacts of family on work, notably expressed in the motherhood wage penalty, and how family structure and processes affect long-term labor market outcomes. Research documents considerable heterogeneity in work-family dynamics over the life course across social groups with unequal resources. The review concludes with an assessment of the interplay of work and family trajectories studied longitudinally and makes recommendations for future research. It is argued that while extant studies of the work-family interface are compatible with, and sometimes deliberately reflect, a life course perspective, these bodies of research would benefit from more fully incorporating the life course principles of "agency" and "time and place".

Far from home: migration, venture and income mobility

This work focuses on the role that interregional migration within a country can play in fostering intragenerational income mobility through its effect on households’ participation in business venture. Unique panel data on Chinese households from 2015 to 2019 identifies migration experience and provides detailed information on income and entrepreneurial activities. Our key finding is that migration increases upward economic mobility within cohorts by enhancing opportunities of entrepreneurship, and this pattern is more salient in regions with more severe inequality. Consequently, migrant population in these areas enjoy greater chances when climbing income ladders, which may further alleviate regional income inequality in the long run. The estimation results remain robust when winsorising income, using sub-samples of follow-up households in repeated surveys and altering the scale of income mobility. The analysis in this article, coupled with literature on migration and entrepreneurship, provides a new perspective on how free migration matters in improving intragenerational mobility and longer-term income distribution.

Mobility prospects and preferences for redistribution in Latin America

The present paper aims to provide evidence about the POUM hypothesis (prospects of upward mobility) in Latin America. It postulates that preferences for redistribution decrease with the prospects of upward mobility of individuals, given that in a possible economic improvement they would be harmed by redistribution. The case of Latin America is analyzed for the period 2009-2018, which has registered changes in inequality and intragenerational mobility in part, due to redistributive policies in the past decade. For this, data from Latinobarómetro and the Probit-Adapted OLS methodology are used. The results support the POUM hypothesis, unlike what the studies carried out for previous periods obtain, in another context of inequality and mobility in Latin America. In addition, suggestive results are obtained about the influence of intergenerational mobility, religiosity, ideology and institutional quality on preferences for redistribution. It should be noted that these results vary according to the country.

Intragenerational mobility and the concept of the equalization of longer-term incomes: An estimation for a developing country

This paper calculates the degree of intragenerational income mobility and carries out the decomposition of the influence of observable characteristics on income mobility. Using the concept of mobility as the equalization of longer-term incomes, we quantify the class of measures called the E index using administrative records for social security contributions of formally employed young adults in Colombia between 2010 and 2018. In addition, we use the Recentered Influence Function (RIF) decomposition method to extend its application to the E index and decompose the influence of observable characteristics on our estimates. Our findings indicate Colombia's mobility is disequalizing. We also show that female mobility is even more disequalizing than male mobility. Our decomposition shows that disequalizing mobility depends on employees' type of contract, economic sector, and location.

Absolute intragenerational mobility in the United States, 1962–2014

This paper combines historical cross-sectional and longitudinal data in the United States to study the evolution of absolute intragenerational mobility over periods of four years. Absolute intragenerational mobility over such periods is procyclical and is largely confined within 45%–55%. We also find that absolute mobility decreases with income. Individuals and families occupying the lower ranks of the income distribution have a higher probability of increasing their income over short time periods than those occupying higher ranks. This also occurs during periods of increasing inequality. Our findings stem from the importance of the changes in the composition of income ranks. These changes are over and above mechanical labor market dynamics, such as entering and exiting the labor force, and life cycle effects. We offer a simplified model to mathematically describe these findings.

The mobility of top earnings, income, and wealth in China: Facts from the 2011–2017 China household finance survey

We document rich facts of the intra-generational mobility of households in the top fractiles of earnings, income, and wealth distributions in China using the panel data of the 2011–2017 China Household Finance Survey. We find high mobility co-exists with high inequalities within various top fractile groups. In specific, persistence rates of the top 1% group implied an inverted-U pattern for top earnings mobility, a declined trend of top income mobility, and an improved trend for top wealth mobility during the study period. Although the overall trends of mobility for top earnings, income, and wealth showed diverse patterns, they are still considered high from global comparisons. Besides, the top 1% households generate significantly more income from business and allocate a higher fraction of their assets to private equity.

Social origin and secondary labour market entry: Ascriptive and institutional inequalities over the early career in Italy and Germany

This paper investigates how labour market flexibilisation strengthens the role of social origin in conditioning inter- and intragenerational mobility chances. Drawing on the upper-class aversion to downward mobility, we explore mechanisms through which advantaged social origin directly compensate for the socioeconomic penalty that arises from initial contractual instability over the career. Conversely, we examine whether a bad start for less-socially privileged entrants represents a source of cumulative disadvantage. The Italian and German labour markets are compared since optimal national cases of labour market duality and rigidity yet differing in their educational and labour market institutions and mobility regimes. We perform growth curves under a matching framework to counterfactually compare the career development of service- and working-class entrants in the two countries, who began with similar socioeconomic status. We reveal that social origin contributes to unequal trajectory developments in both contexts, especially for the low- and middle-educated. No significant DESO over the career emerges among degree holders in either country. Finally, attending university entirely reduces the flexibility penalty in Italy, whereas for German graduates, initial instability serves as a gateway to more prestigious jobs.

Intragenerational occupational mobility of South Korea, 1998–2017: Implications of the gendered life course approach for mobility and inequality studies

This study examined intragenerational mobility in South Korea during the era of increasing inequality by applying a micro-class approach. We improved the methods of studying intragenerational mobility by accounting for non-employment and analyzing gendered age patterns of intragenerational mobility based on a synthetic cohort approach. Our analyses demonstrated the following. First, age patterns of intragenerational mobility greatly differed by gender: Men’s mobility patterns stabilized as they aged, but there was no such stabilization among women. Notably, movements in and out of labor markets were more frequent among women than men. The persistence of patriarchal culture during rapid economic development was responsible for this pattern. Second, intragenerational mobility did not increase in South Korea. This finding is different from that of the United States, where increasing intragenerational mobility partly countervailed the trends of rising inequality for stable intergenerational mobility. This difference warrants reconsidering the role of intragenerational mobility as a link between inequality and social mobility. We discuss the implications of these findings on the relationship between inequality and mobility and gendered life trajectories in South Korea.

Income inequality and intragenerational income mobility in Sweden from 1983 to 2010: Following two birth cohorts

Sweden has been known for having one of the most equal income distributions in the world. However, in recent decades, Sweden has experienced increasing income inequality. An alternative way of measuring the development of inequality is to study and compare the income development within and between two birth cohorts according to gender and different positions of income distribution. The focus in this paper is to study how individual disposable personal income has changed by aging and at various positions of the income distribution, as well as the gender disposable income gap and intragenerational income mobility. Three positions of the income distribution were chosen: percentile 10; median; and percentile 99. Two cohorts, including all individuals born in 1948 and 1958, were tracked from 35 years of age to 53 years of age – with two 18-year overlapping periods, 1983–2000, and 1993–2010. The results show a complex and multifaceted image of the development of income inequality and mobility, within and between the two birth cohorts. Especially male low-income earners, born 1958, have been left behind. Income mobility differ according to gender where women have increased mobility in the bottom quintile and decreased in the top quintile, men experienced the opposite. When modelling mobility education have decreased to contribute to an upward mobility, especial for cohort born 1958. Taking all the results together, the development of increasing income inequality in Sweden is apparent.

Intragenerational social mobility and self-rated oral health in the british cohort study

BackgroundMost studies on social mobility and oral health have focused on movement between generations (intergenerational mobility) rather than movement within an individual’s own lifetime (intragenerational mobility). The aim of this study was to investigate the association between intragenerational social mobility from early to middle adulthood and self-rated oral health.MethodsThis study used data from 6524 participants of the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study, an ongoing population-based birth cohort of individuals born in England, Scotland and Wales. Participants’ socioeconomic position was indicated by occupational social class at age 26 and 46 years (the first and latest adult waves, respectively). Self-rated oral health was measured at age 46 years. The association between social mobility and adult oral health was assessed using conventional regression models and diagonal reference models, adjusting for gender, ethnicity, country of residence and residence area.ResultsOver a fifth of participants (22.2%) reported poor self-rated oral health at age 46 years. In conventional regression analysis, the odds ratios for social mobility varied depending on whether they were adjusted for social class of origin or destination. In addition, all social trajectories had greater odds of reporting poor oral health than non-mobile adults in class I/II. In diagonal reference models, both upward (Odds Ratio 0.79; 95% CI 0.63–0.99) and downward mobility (0.90; 95% CI 0.71–1.13) were inversely associated with poor self-rated oral health. The origin weight was 0.48 (95% CI 0.33–0.63), suggesting that social class of origin was as important as social class of destination.ConclusionThis longitudinal analysis showed that intragenerational social mobility from young to middle adulthood was associated with self-rated oral health, independent of previous and current social class.

A mobility decomposition of absolute measures of panel distributional change

This paper proposes a decomposition of a general class of absolute measures of panel welfare change into growth, dispersion and exchange mobility components, which is useful for both intergenerational and intragenerational mobility assessments. We show that this decomposition is the only one within a broad set of possibilities that satisfies a key dispersion-sensitivity property and that prioritising improvements among those initially poorest is identical to a favourable view of exchange mobility.

Who Cares? Social Mobility and the ‘Class Ceiling’ in Nursing

Nursing is often associated with providing working-class women a route to upward social mobility. This article argues that although nursing is a relatively open profession, the impact of social class endures, with the main division between nurses who are from higher professional backgrounds and the rest. We utilise the Great British Class Survey (GBCS) to explore nurses’ social origins; the relationship between background and economic, social, and cultural capital; and the impact of origin and capitals on income (and inferred career trajectory). While recognising the methodological limitations of the GBCS, we suggest there may be a ‘class ceiling’ in nursing, and that class advantages are still significant in lower professions of the public sector. Class identification endures regardless of whether nurses have been upwardly or downwardly mobile. We also suggest future directions for intragenerational mobility and gender in social mobility research and make a case for longitudinal and qualitative analysis of nurses’ trajectories. Our findings indicate that the downwardly mobile children of the middle classes retain their classed advantages as they establish their own careers.

The Variability of Occupational Attainment: How Prestige Trajectories Diversified within Birth Cohorts over the Twentieth Century

This study develops and applies a framework for analyzing variability in individuals’ occupational prestige trajectories and changes in average variability between birth cohorts. It extends previous literature focused on typical patterns of intragenerational mobility over the life course to more fully examine intracohort differentiation. Analyses are based on rich life course data for men and women in West Germany born between 1919 and 1979 from the German Life History Study and the German National Educational Panel Study ( N = 16,854 individuals). Mixed-effects growth-curve models with heterogeneous variance components are applied. Results show that birth cohorts systematically differ in their variability; cohorts who entered the labor market in the late 1950s and 1960s and experienced mostly closed employment relations have exceptionally homogenous trajectories. Earlier and later cohorts, who experienced more open employment relations, are more heterogeneous in their trajectories. Cohorts with higher variability at labor market entry are characterized by persistently strong intracohort differentiation. Women’s variability within employment is similar to men’s but markedly increases once employment interruptions are considered.

Intragenerational Economic Mobility in Indonesia: A Transition from Poverty to the Middle Class in 1993–2014

Economic mobility, especially through expansion of the middle class, will dominate the future of Indonesia’s development agenda. Based on data from five waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), we found that (1) poverty decreased significantly between 1993 and 2014, from 86.1% to 20.2%, while the middle class grew by almost nine times; (2) 34.4% of the poor moved into the middle class, but 11.9% were still categorised as chronically poor; (3) 42.3% of the middle class did not move into the upper class; (4) the middle and upper classes are vulnerable and easily fall into the lower classes. Our econometric estimations confirm that the drivers of economic mobility are educational attainment, formal employment, water and electricity supply, land ownership, and health investment. These findings suggest that investment in human and physical capital are the two main strategies to expand the middle class.