Social Mobility Abstracts
Bibliography, Syllabus, Journals, Books on Social Mobility, Horizontal Social Mobility, Vertical Social Mobility, Social Mobility, Stratification
Social Mobility and Political Transitions Bahar Leventolu
Political Science from the University of Rochesterbahar.leventoglu@stonybrook.edu
Journal of Theoretical Politics, Vol. 17, No. 4, 465-496 (2005) DOI:
10.1177/0951629805056897
I address the role of social mobility in political transitions. I develop a political
economy model of regime transitions that incorporates social mobility as a key feature of
the economy capturing the political attitudes toward redistribution. I show that social
mobility facilitates democratization by reducing the conflict over redistribution between
the rich and the poor. Furthermore, it facilitates democratic consolidation by reducing
the likelihood of a coup under democracy. On the other hand, social mobility helps to keep
an authoritarian regime stable by reducing the likelihood of mass movements against
political elites.
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Social Mobility and Modernization: A Journal of Interdisciplinary History Reader.
Edited by Robert I. Rotberg. Cambridge, Mass., London: The MIT Press.
Modern social history is looking back to thirty years of rising activity. It changed
dramatically during this period and was definitely broadened by the cultural history of
the 1980's and 1990's. In recent years the debate on social history calmed down. This is a
good moment to look back and to reflect on what has been reached and what has been missed.
The volume by Robert I. Rotberg illustrates the merits. The dozen articles of the volume
can be seen as a tour d'horizon of thirty years of social history of the American study of
social history covering primarily Europe. They are a selection of the best articles of the
Journal of Interdisciplinary History by Robert I. Rotberg, the co-editor of the journal.
They treat various standard themes of social history such as social mobility, class
structure, industrialization industrialization
Alcohol Consumption Behaviours and Social Mobility in Men and Women of the Midspan
Family Study - Carole L. Hart, George Davey Smith, Mark N. Upton and Graham C. M. Watt -
Alcohol and Alcoholism 2009 44(3):332-336; doi:10.1093/alcalc/agn125
Abstract: Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between alcohol
consumption and social mobility in a cohort study in Scotland. Methods: 1040 sons and 1298
daughters aged 30–59 from 1477 families reported their alcohol consumption from which
was derived: weekly units (1 UK unit being 8 g ethanol), exceeding daily or weekly limits,
binge drinking and consuming alcohol on 5+ days per week. Own and father's social class
were available enabling social mobility to be investigated. Results: More downwardly
mobile men exceeded the weekly limit, the daily limit, were defined as binge drinkers and
drank the most units per week of the four social mobility groups. Stable non-manual women
were more likely to consume alcohol on 5+ days a week but very few were binge drinkers.
Stable non-manual and upwardly mobile men and women were more likely to drink wine, and
downwardly mobile men to drink beer. Conclusions: Downward mobility was associated with
less favourable alcohol behaviours, especially in men. Wine consumption was more closely
related to the social mobility groups than beer and spirits consumption. Drinking patterns
could both influence and be influenced by social mobility.
SOCIAL MOBILITY WITHIN AND ACROSS GENERATIONS IN BRITAIN SINCE 1851 JASON LONG -
Department of Economics
Colby College and Department of Economics and Nuffield College, University of Oxford
In this paper, I use a rich new data source to provide new measures of social mobility in
England and Wales from 1851 to 1901. Existing measures of intergenerational mobility
derived from marriage registries fail to control for life-cycle differences between father
and son. Correcting for this reveals significantly more mobility across generations than
previous estimates: half of all sons end up in a different occupational class than their
father, and the rate of upward mobility is 40 percent greater than the rate of downward
mobility. The data also allow the rate of intragenerational mobility to be measured for
the first time. It is slightly lower than mobility across generations, but still
substantial; 44 percent of males in their twenties changed occupational class over a
thirty-year period. International and intertemporal comparisons show that mobility in
Britain was much lower than in the U.S., but that unlike in the U.S., it trended upward
from 1851 to 1970. In assessing the level of equality or “fairness” in a
society, it is natural to look first at the distribution of economic resources across the
population. A high concentration of income or wealth indicates inequality in economic
outcomes. However, it is at least as important to consider the rate of social mobility,
which indicates the equality not of outcome but of opportunity.
Migration Enclaves, Schooling Choices and Social Mobility
Piacentini, Mario (2008) mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/8376/
Abstract: This paper investigates the presence of a network externality which might
explain the persistence of low schooling achievements among internal migrants. A simple
analytical framework is presented to show how an initial human capital disparity between
migrants and non migrants can translate into persistent skill inequality if origin shapes
the composition of social networks. We test empirically whether young migrants?schooling
decisions are affected by the presence of covillagers at destination, using data on
life-time histories of migration and education choices from a rural region of Thailand.
Different modelling approaches are used to account for the self-selection of young
migrants, for potential endogeneity of the network size, and for unobserved heterogeneity
in individual preferences. The size of the migrant network is found to negatively affect
the propensity of young migrants to pursue schooling while in the city. This fi?nding
suggests that policies seeking to minimising strati?cation in enclaves might have a
socially multiplied impact on schooling participation, and, ultimately, affect the
socio-economic mobility of the rural born.
The impact of social mobility and within-family learning on voter preferences:
Evidence from a sample of twins
Harry Krashinsky
Centre for Industrial Relations, University of Toronto
Journal of Public Economics Volume 91, Issues 1-2, February 2007, Pages 97-116
Abstract: Income-maximizing consumers should vote in predictable ways: support for
liberal, redistributive governments should fall as income rises. But weak empirical
evidence for these voting patterns might suggest that voters are influenced by alternative
factors, such as perceptions of social mobility from within-family learning. To examine
these effects, this paper uses a data set of twins and a recently-developed econometric
approach to show that within-family learning and family-specific effects are important
determinants of voting preferences and preferences for redistribution.
Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution: The POUM Hypothesis
Roland Benabou, Efe A. Ok
Journal of Economics, 2001, v116(2,May), 447-487.
Abstract: Even relatively poor people oppose high rates of redistribution because of the
anticipation that they or their children may move up the income ladder. This hypothesis
commonly advanced as an explanation of why most democracies do not engage in large-scale
expropriation and highly progressive redistribution. But is it compatible with everyone --
especially the poor -- holding rational expectations that not everyone can simultaneously
expect to end up richer than average? This paper establishes the formal basis for the POUM
hypothesis. There is a range of incomes below the mean where agents oppose lasting
redistributions if (and, in a sense, only if) tomorrow's expected income is increasing and
concave in today's income. The laissez-faire coalition is larger, the more concave the
transition function and the longer the policy horizon. We illustrate the general analysis
with an example (calibrated to the U.S.) where, in every period, 3/4 of families are
poorer than average, yet a 2/3 majority has expected future incomes above the mean, and
therefore desires low tax rates for all future generations. We also analyze empirical
mobility matrices from the PSID and find that the POUM effect is indeed a significant
feature of the data.
Kin Networks, Marriage, and Social Mobility in Late Imperial China
Cameron Campbell and James Lee
Social Science History 2008 32(2):175-214; DOI:10.1215/01455532-2007-018
To assess claims about the role of the extended family in late imperial Chinese society,
we examine the influence of kin network characteristics on marriage, reproduction, and
attainment in Liaoning Province in Northeast China in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. We compare the influences on outcomes of the number and status of different
types of kin as well as the seniority of the individual within each type of kin group. We
find that the characteristics of kin outside the household did matter for individual
outcomes but that patterns of effects were nuanced. While based on our results we concur
that kin networks were important units of social and economic organization in late
imperial China, we conclude that their role was complex.
Social Mobility and Intergroup Antagonism
A Simulation, Burton B. Silver
Department of Sociology and Social Psychology Florida Atlantic University
Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 17, No. 4, 605-623 (1973) DOI:
10.1177/002200277301700402
This paper reevaluates certain aspects of Dahrendorf's conflict theory in relation to
social mobility. Specifically, the relationship between the degree of openness or
closedness of the mobility opportunity structure of society and the degree of intergroup
antagonism is examined. A game simulation is initiated whereby the researcher is able to
create simulated situations of varying mobility opportunity and observe, by means of pre-
and posttest questionnaires, the relative antagonism between groups within the situation
and the participants' latent antagonism outside the simulated situation. The findings
provide support for Dahrendorf's hypothesis, but also indicate that further dynamics are
involved in the structure of mobility systems.
The Consequences of Immigration for Social Mobility: The Experience of Israel
Meir Yaish, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905,
Israel. E-mail: meir.yaish@soc.haifa.ac.il
European Sociological Review 18:449-471 (2002) © 2002 Oxford University Press
A commonly held view argues that immigration is a major force propelling social mobility.
Since, by definition, the immigration process entails a separation of individuals from
their communities, it is argued that a relatively weak association exists between the
immigrant's social position (in their country of origin) and that of their offspring (in
the ‘new’ society). It follows from this that in immigrant society (i) the
overall association between parents' social position and that of their offspring is
relatively weak; and (ii) as long as immigration continues this association is expected to
weaken. This paper utilizes the 1974 and 1991 mobility surveys in Israel to study the
association between immigration and social mobility and fluidity amongst Israeli Jews.
Israel is amongst the few nations where immigrants made up the majority of its original
population, and throughout the years, successive waves of (Jewish) immigrants have
continued to enter the country. Israel, moreover, is a distinctive immigrant society in
which such a process can be traced back to its roots by analysing high-quality data. This
study finds that immigration to Israel may not have been the force that generated a high
level of fluidity in the society. Nonetheless, immigration to Israel has changed the
Israeli class structure and generated high rates of absolute mobility. Thus, it is
concluded, structural changes cannot account for the relatively high level of fluidity in
Israel. It is also concluded that successive waves of immigrants entering a society do not
affect relative mobility such that over time a trend towards increasing fluidity is
produced. Finally, it is shown that the origin of the ethnic basis of the inequality of
opportunity that prevails in Israeli society today may be embedded in historical
immigration processes.
Family Patterns Of Social Mobility Through Higher Education In England In The
1930s
Journal of Social History, Summer, 2001 by Carol Dyhouse
I focus on patterns of social mobility as experienced differently by men and women
graduates, both in their family situations and in their working lives. Further, in
exploring the question of parental aspirations and support for higher education, I shall
highlight some of the ways in which mothers and fathers sometimes nurtured different
aspirations for their families, or contributed differently to the educatio nal careers of
their children. Education has often been seen as having represented "a central
element in the creation and reproduction of cultural capital" amongst the upwardly
mobile, and an understanding of the role played by mothers in encouraging their children
into higher education may be seen as going some way towards restoring visibility to women
in patterns of social mobility in history.
Measuring Social Mobility as Unpredictability
Simon C. Parker & Jonathan Rougier
University of Durham
Copyright The London School of Economics and Political Science
ABSTRACT: By associating mobility with the unpredictability of social states, new measures
of social mobility may be constructed. We propose a family of three state-by-state and
aggregate (scalar) predictability measures. The first set of measures is based on the
transition matrix. The second uses a sampling approach and permits statistical testing of
the hypothesis of perfect mobility, providing a new justification for the use of the ?2
statistic. The third satisfies the demanding criterion of 'period consistency'. An
empirical example demonstrates the usefulness of the new measures to complement existing
ones in the literature.
Mobility strategies in Sâncrai - Hunedoara
Sociologie Româneasca, 2001, 1-4, 232-249.
Abstract - This article intends to describe the changes of migrational flows in the last
forty years (from the perspective of the presence / absence, volume and direction) in
Calan area in the Hunedoara county. In order to point out this dynamic we have depicted
the phenomena of territorial mobility in five different moments, which correspond to some
important structural changes (collectivization, industrialisation, land reform, the
possibility to emigrate, growing unemployment rate). Our premise is that an efficient
method for identifying the particularities of a region is to thoroughly analyse the
specific of a community belonging to that area. As a consequence, the field research
focused on Sâncrai village which orbits mainly around the town Calan (the community was
chosen, according to the principle of exemplarity, for its significance in perceiving the
area in its entire, real functionality). The collected data are being confronted and
completed with quantitative information ( the quest was completed by the people of two
other localities - the Calan town and the village Strei). -
sociologieromaneasca.ro/eng/2001/abstracts/sr2001.a12.htm
IQ, Social Mobility and Growth
John Hassler (john.hassler@iies.su.se) and José V. Rodríguez Mora (sevimora@upf.es)
Abstract: Intelligent agents may contribute to higher technological growth, if assigned
appropriate positions in the economy. These positive effects on growth are unlikely to be
internalized on a competitive labor market. The allocation of talent depends on the
relative award the market assigns to intelligence versus other individual merits, which
will also influence intergenerational social mobility. To illustrate this, we present an
endogenous growth model where each agent can choose to be a worker or an entrepreneur. The
reward to entrepreneurs is an endogenous function of the abilities they have been endowed
by nature as well as of the amount of knowledge and other social assets they inherit from
their parents. When growth is low, the equilibrium in the labor market implies that the
reward to entrepreneurs depends more on social assets than on intelligence. This gives
children of entrepreneurs a large ex-ante advantage over children of workers when working
as entrepreneurs, which will cause low intergenerational social mobility and an ineffcient
allocation of human resources and, consequently, low growth. On the other hand, there is
also a stable equilibrium with high growth which mitigates the ineffciencies generated by
the labor market and implies high intergenerational social mobility.
Social Mobility in Latin America - How is social mobility related to education policy in Latin America? A schooling gap regression analysis - Andersen, L.E. / Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas (IISEC), Universidad Católica Boliviana, La Paz, Bolivia - This paper proposes a new measure of social mobility, It is based on schooling gap regressions and uses the Fields decomposition to determine the importance of family background in explaining teenagers' schooling gaps. - eldis.org/static/DOC9630.htm
Poverty and social mobility in Lebanon: a few wild guesses - Inequality and poverty: a feature of the Shiite and the Sunni in Lebanon - Khoury El, M.; Panizza, U. / Workshop on the Analysis of Poverty and its Determinants in the MENA Region - The purpose of this paper is twofold. First of all, the paper aims at describing poverty in Lebanon and second the paper aims at measuring social mobility in Lebanon. Given that the only available household survey did not include data on income or expenditure, it measures poverty with a proxy for household wealth obtained by applying principal component analysis to a set of indicators of asset ownership.- eldis.org/static/DOC9146.htm
Conventions and Social Mobility in Bargaining Situations - in ELSE working papers from ESRC Centre on Economics Learning and Social Evolution - Giovanni Ponti and Robert M. Seymour - We find that, although any custom (when it operates alone) generates the same limiting class distribution as any other, these limiting distrbutions can be ranked with respect of their mobility. If players are allowed to change their custom when they find it unsatisfactory, then social mobility appears to be the key variable to predict the type of custom which will predominate in the long run even though, in general, no one custom is dominant. In particular, customs which promote social mobility appear to exhibit, in all the cases we have analysed, stronger stability properties. - econpapers.hhs.se/paper/elsesrcls/034.htm
Politics Determine Occupational Opportunity and Social Mobility in East Asia
A study has found that the pattern of social fluidity in East Asian countries differ
substantially from their Western counterparts, thus rendering the Western research models
inadequate for the Asian context.
A paper in the International Journal of Japanese Sociology – published by
Wiley-Blackwell finds that the pattern of social fluidity in East Asian countries differ
substantially from their Western counterparts, thus rendering the Western research models
inadequate for the Asian context.
Dr. Hirohisa Takenoshita, lead author of “Intergenerational Mobility in East Asian
Countries: A Comparative Study of Japan, Korea and China” highlights the similarities
and differences of intergenerational social mobility between Japan, Korea and China.
“Unlike in Western countries, there is much divergence within East Asian countries
regarding whether or not the rapid industrialization results in a fluid social movement.
This is due to the disparity in political regime, socio-economic environment and
culture.” says Dr. Takenoshita.
He added, “These societies have come to accept the common pattern of flexibility
among the self-employed – an attitude which appears to differ substantially from
their European counterparts.”
There is common belief that relative mobility rates and patterns are substantially
identical across industrialized countries. However, the time and speed of economic
development coupled with the diverse political and socio-economic environment in the East
Asian countries makes them different from the western models.
Even within East Asian countries, there are significant differences between capitalist and
post-socialist societies. Unlike Japan and Korea, China has a higher level of social
fluidity between white and blue collar workers, but at the same time, demonstrates a
higher level of class inheritance, compared to Korea.
“Governments in East Asia need to take these differences into consideration when
conducting research for policy issues aimed at reducing inequality of occupational
opportunity” says Dr. Takenoshita.
Intergenerational Mobility for Women and Minorities in the United States
Journal article by Melissa S. Kearney; The Future of Children, Vol. 16, 2006
The Role of Higher Education in Social Mobility
Journal article by Robert Haveman, Timothy Smeeding; The Future of Children, Vol. 16, 2006
Early Childhood Development and Social Mobility
Journal article by W. Steven Barnett, Clive R. Belfield; The Future of Children, Vol. 16,
2006
Social Mobilization and Collective Violence: Vigilantes and Militias in the Lowlands of
Plateau State, Central Nigeria
Journal article by Adam Higazi; Africa, Vol. 78, 2008
Making It in America: Social Mobility in the Immigrant Population
Journal article by George J. Borjas; The Future of Children, Vol. 16, 2006
Social Mobility in Europe
by Breen, Richard
citeulike.org/article/2107950
The Comparative Study of Social Mobility
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 1-17.
by Breen, Richard
Statistical Methods of Mobility Research
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 17-37.
by Breen, Richard
Social Mobility in Europe between 1970 and 2000
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 37-77.
by Breen, Richard, Luijkx, Ruud
Social Mobility in West Germany: The Long Arms of History Discovered?
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 77-115.
by Muller, Walter, Pollak, Reinhard
Change in Intergenerational Class Mobility in France from the 1970s to the 1990s and its
Explanation: An Analysis Following the CASMIN Approach
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 115-149.
by Vallet, Louis-Andre
The Italian Mobility Regime: 1985-97
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 149-175.
by Pisati, Maurizio, Schizzerotto, Antonio
Class Transformation and Trends in Social Fluidity in the Republic of Ireland 1973-94
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 175-195.
by Layte, Richard, Whelan, T. Christopher
Trends in Intergenerational Class Mobility in Britain in the Late Twentieth Century
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 195-225.
by Goldthorpe, H. John
Equality at a Halt? Social Mobility in Sweden, 1976-99
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 225-251.
by Jonsson, O. Jan
Social Mobility in Norway 1973-95
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 251-269.
by Ringdal, Kristen
Intergenerational Mobility in Poland: 1972-88-94
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 269-287.
by Mach, W. Bogdan
Changes in Intergenerational Class Mobility in Hungary, 1973-2000
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 287-315.
by Robert, Peter, Bukodi, Erzsebet
Opportunities, Little Change: Class Mobility in Israeli Society, 1974-91
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 315-345.
by Yaish, Meir
Recent Trends in Intergenerational Occupational Class Reproduction in the Netherlands
1970-99
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 345-383.
by Ganzeboom, B. G. Harry, Luijkx, Ruud
Conclusions
Social Mobility in Europe, pp. 383-446.
by Breen, Richard, Luijkx, Ruud
Class
Passing Social Mobility In Film And Popular Culture
Economic
and Social Mobility in America
Class
Mobility and American Social Policy
Ethnicity
Social Mobility and Public Policy
Education
as an Engine for Social Mobility
Social
Structure and Social Mobility
Social
Mobility and Modernization
Social
Mobility in a Changing World
Social
Mobility and Class Structure in Britain
Qualitative
Approach to Social Mobility
Life Chances And Social Mobility
Intergenerational mobility, class mobility and social mobility