IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fas/journl/v4y2014i1p95-134.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Rural India: Evidence from Ten Villages

Author

Listed:
  • A. Bheemeshwar Reddy

    (Senior Research Fellow, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore, bheemeshwar@isibang.ac.in.)

  • Madhura Swaminathan

    (Professor, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore.)

Abstract

Given the relatively limited employment opportunities available within villages, the main vehicle for intergenerational occupational mobility for people in rural India is migration to urban or semi-urban areas. At the same time, since 69 per cent of India's population still lives in villages, it is important to examine and understand the level of intergenerational occupational mobility within villages themselves. This paper examines intergenerational occupational mobility among rural males in India using data from household surveys in ten villages in different agro-ecological regions of the country. The mobility matrix approach is applied to two father-son pairs: heads of households and their fathers and heads of households and co-resident adult sons. A four-fold occupational classification is used: big farmers, small farmers, skilled workers and persons engaged in business or salaried employment, and lastly, rural manual workers. The main finding of the paper is of low intergenerational occupational mobility in all ten villages, particularly among big farmers and rural manual workers. Intergenerational occupational immobility was higher among manual workers from Scheduled Castes than manual workers from Other Castes. Odds ratios showed that downward mobility from any occupation to that of manual worker was higher for Scheduled Caste men than men of Other Castes. The data strongly support the view that Scheduled Caste men who remain in villages are unable to move out of rural manual employment.

Suggested Citation

  • A. Bheemeshwar Reddy & Madhura Swaminathan, 2014. "Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Rural India: Evidence from Ten Villages," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 4(1), pages 95-134, February-.
    • Handle: RePEc:fas:journl:v:4:y:2014:i:1:p:95-134
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ras.org.in/index.php?Abstract=intergenerational_occupational_mobility_in_rural_india
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sripad Motiram & Ashish Singh, 2012. "How close does the apple fall to the tree? Some evidence on intergenerational occupational mobility from India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2012-017, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    2. Solon, Gary, 1999. "Intergenerational mobility in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 29, pages 1761-1800, Elsevier.
    3. Jason Long & Joseph Ferrie, 2013. "Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Great Britain and the United States since 1850," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(4), pages 1109-1137, June.
    4. Sripad Motiram & Ashish Singh, 2012. "How Close Does the Apple Fall to the Tree?: Some Evidence on Intergenerational Occupational Mobility from India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-101, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Rajarshi Majumder, 2010. "Intergenerational Mobility in Educational and Occupational Attainment," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 4(4), pages 463-494, November.
    6. John Dreze & Peter Lanjouw & Nicholas Stern, 1992. "Economic Mobility and Agricultural Labour in Rural India: A Case Study," Indian Economic Review, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, vol. 27, pages 25-54.
    7. Jason Long & Joseph Ferrie, 2013. "Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Great Britain and the United States since 1850: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 2041-2049, August.
    8. Black, Sandra E. & Devereux, Paul J., 2011. "Recent Developments in Intergenerational Mobility," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 16, pages 1487-1541, Elsevier.
    9. Reddy, A. Bheemeshwar & Swaminathan, Madhura, 2014. "Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Rural India: Evidence from Ten Villages," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 4(1), July.
    10. Jo Blanden, 2013. "Cross-Country Rankings In Intergenerational Mobility: A Comparison Of Approaches From Economics And Sociology," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 38-73, February.
    11. Rajarshi Majumder, 2013. "Intergenerational Mobility," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, edition 127, number 978-81-322-1130-3, June.
    12. Blanden, Jo, 2013. "Cross-national rankings of intergenerational mobility: a comparison of approaches from economics and sociology," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59310, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Gary Solon, 2002. "Cross-Country Differences in Intergenerational Earnings Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 59-66, Summer.
    14. Sripad Motiram & Ashish Singh, 2012. "How close does the apple fall to the tree? Some evidence on intergenerational occupational mobility from India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2012-017, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    15. Majumder, Rajarshi, 2010. "Intergenerational mobility in educational & occupational attainment: a comparative study of social classes in India," MPRA Paper 40939, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thiagu Ranganathan & Amarnath Tripathi & Ghanshyam Pandey, 2016. "Income Mobility among Social Groups in Indian Rural Households Findings from the Indian Human Development Survey," IEG Working Papers 368, Institute of Economic Growth.
    2. A. Bheemeshwar Reddy & Madhura Swaminathan, 2014. "Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Rural India: Evidence from Ten Villages," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 4(1), pages 95-134, February-.
    3. Nawazuddin Ahmed & Dinesh K. Nauriyal, 2023. "Occupational and Educational Mobility Among Indian Muslims: Primary Survey-Based Evidence," Millennial Asia, , vol. 14(2), pages 228-259, June.
    4. Sandhya R. Mahapatro & Renu Choudhary, 2022. "Intergenerational educational and occupational mobility among scheduled castes in rural Bihar," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 24(1), pages 65-84, June.
    5. Manasi Bera & Amaresh Dubey, 2020. "Structure and Changes in Household Income and Employment Across Social Groups in Rural India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(2), pages 407-435, June.
    6. Manasi Bera & Amaresh Dubey, 0. "Structure and Changes in Household Income and Employment Across Social Groups in Rural India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 0, pages 1-29.
    7. Reddy, A. Bheemeshwar, 2015. "Changes in Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in India: Evidence from National Sample Surveys, 1983–2012," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 329-343.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reddy, A. Bheemeshwar, 2015. "Changes in Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in India: Evidence from National Sample Surveys, 1983–2012," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 329-343.
    2. Nawazuddin Ahmed & Dinesh K. Nauriyal, 2023. "Occupational and Educational Mobility Among Indian Muslims: Primary Survey-Based Evidence," Millennial Asia, , vol. 14(2), pages 228-259, June.
    3. Azam, Mehtabul, 2013. "Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in India," IZA Discussion Papers 7608, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Sandhya R. Mahapatro & Renu Choudhary, 2022. "Intergenerational educational and occupational mobility among scheduled castes in rural Bihar," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 24(1), pages 65-84, June.
    5. Tamalika Lodh & Poulomi Roy & Malabika Roy, 2021. "Intergenerational occupational mobility in India across social groups," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 405-433, December.
    6. Martin Dribe & Jonas Helgertz, 2015. "The lasting impact of grandfathers: class, occupational status, and earnings over three generations (Sweden, 1815-2010)," Working Papers 15027, Economic History Society.
    7. Majumder, Rajarshi & Ray, Jhilam, 2016. "Development and Exclusion: Intergenerational Stickiness in India," MPRA Paper 71182, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. M. Shahe Emran & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Yajing Jiang & Yan Sun, 2023. "Occupational dualism and intergenerational educational mobility in the rural economy: evidence from China and India," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(3), pages 743-773, September.
    9. Guido Neidhöfer, 2019. "Intergenerational mobility and the rise and fall of inequality: Lessons from Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 499-520, December.
    10. Huo, Yujia & Golley, Jane, 2022. "Intergenerational education transmission in China: The gender dimension," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Anirudh Krishna, 2014. "Examining the Structure of Opportunity and Social Mobility in India: Who Becomes an Engineer?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(1), pages 1-28, January.
    12. Nawazuddin Ahmed & D. K. Nauriyal, 2024. "The Impact of Parents’ Educational and Occupational Footprints on Children: Evidence From India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 19(1), pages 7-43, April.
    13. Kishan P K V, 2018. "Is the Past Still Holding Us Back? A Study on Intergenerational Education Mobility in India (revised as on 26.09.18)," IIMA Working Papers WP 2018-01-03, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    14. Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2013. "Income Mobility," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 607, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    15. Doruk, Ömer Tuğsal & Pastore, Francesco & Yavuz, Hasan Bilgehan, 2022. "Intergenerational mobility: An assessment for Latin American countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 141-157.
    16. Anirudh Krishna & Swapnil Agarwal, 2017. "Promoting Social Mobility in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 12(3), pages 236-258, December.
    17. Dhiman Das, 2019. "Academic Resilience Among Children from Disadvantaged Social Groups in India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 719-739, September.
    18. Thiagu Ranganathan & Amarnath Tripathi & Ghanshyam Pandey, 2016. "Income Mobility among Social Groups in Indian Rural Households Findings from the Indian Human Development Survey," IEG Working Papers 368, Institute of Economic Growth.
    19. Akanksha Choudhary & Ashish Singh, 2017. "Are Daughters Like Mothers: Evidence on Intergenerational Educational Mobility Among Young Females in India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 601-621, September.
    20. Emran, M. Shahe & Ferreira, Francisco & Jiang, Yajing & Sun, Yan, 2019. "Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Rural Economy: Evidence from China and India," MPRA Paper 94121, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fas:journl:v:4:y:2014:i:1:p:95-134. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Prof. VK Ramachandran (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ras.org.in .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.