IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v657y2015i1p63-82.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A New Infrastructure for Monitoring Social Mobility in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • David B. Grusky
  • Timothy M. Smeeding
  • C. Matthew Snipp

Abstract

The country’s capacity to monitor trends in social mobility has languished since the last major survey on U.S. social mobility was fielded in 1973. It is accordingly difficult to evaluate recent concerns that social mobility may be declining or to develop mobility policy that is adequately informed by evidence. This article presents a new initiative, dubbed the American Opportunity Study (AOS), that would allow the country to monitor social mobility efficiently and with great accuracy. The AOS entails developing the country’s capacity to link records across decennial censuses, the American Community Survey, and administrative sources. If an AOS of this sort were assembled, it would open up new fields of social science inquiry; increase opportunities for evidence-based policy on poverty, mobility, child development, and labor markets; and otherwise constitute a new social science resource with much reach and impact.

Suggested Citation

  • David B. Grusky & Timothy M. Smeeding & C. Matthew Snipp, 2015. "A New Infrastructure for Monitoring Social Mobility in the United States," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 63-82, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:657:y:2015:i:1:p:63-82
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716214549941
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716214549941
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716214549941?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Hout, 2015. "A Summary of What We Know about Social Mobility," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 27-36, January.
    2. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-71, March.
    3. 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.
    4. Sabino Kornrich & Frank Furstenberg, 2013. "Investing in Children: Changes in Parental Spending on Children, 1972–2007," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(1), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez & Nicholas Turner, 2014. "Is the United States Still a Land of Opportunity? Recent Trends in Intergenerational Mobility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 141-147, May.
    6. Laura Tach, 2015. "Social Mobility in an Era of Family Instability and Complexity," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 83-96, January.
    7. John Robert Warren, 2015. "Potential Data Sources for a New Study of Social Mobility in the United States," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 208-246, January.
    8. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1553-1623.
    9. David S. Johnson & Catherine Massey & Amy O’Hara, 2015. "The Opportunities and Challenges of Using Administrative Data Linkages to Evaluate Mobility," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 247-264, January.
    10. Chul-In Lee & Gary Solon, 2009. "Trends in Intergenerational Income Mobility," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(4), pages 766-772, November.
    11. Bhashkar Mazumder & Miguel Acosta, 2015. "Using Occupation to Measure Intergenerational Mobility," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 174-193, January.
    12. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2008. "Sibling similarities and economic inequality in the US," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 21(3), pages 685-701, July.
    13. Kenneth Prewitt, 2015. "Who Is Listening? When Scholars Think They Are Talking to Congress," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 265-273, January.
    14. Gregory Clark, 2015. "The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 10181-2.
    15. Robert Mare, 2011. "A Multigenerational View of Inequality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(1), pages 1-23, February.
    16. Zhen Zeng & Yu Xie, 2014. "The Effects of Grandparents on Children’s Schooling: Evidence From Rural China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 599-617, April.
    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. Robert D. Mare, 2015. "Measuring Networks beyond the Origin Family," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 97-107, January.
    2. John Robert Warren, 2015. "Potential Data Sources for a New Study of Social Mobility in the United States," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 208-246, January.
    3. Henry E. Brady & Kay Lehman Schlozman & Sidney Verba, 2015. "Political Mobility and Political Reproduction from Generation to Generation," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 149-173, January.

    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. Olivetti, Claudia & Paserman, M. Daniele & Salisbury, Laura, 2018. "Three-generation mobility in the United States, 1850–1940: The role of maternal and paternal grandparents," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 73-90.
    2. Amaral, Ernesto F. L. & Yen, Shih-Keng & Wang, Sharron Xuanren, 2019. "A meta-analysis of the association between income inequality and intergenerational mobility," OSF Preprints 8qmhw, Center for Open Science.
    3. Pablo A. Mitnik & Erin Cumberworth & David B. Grusky, 2016. "Social Mobility in a High-Inequality Regime," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 663(1), pages 140-184, January.
    4. Sebastian Till Braun & Jan Stuhler, 2018. "The Transmission of Inequality Across Multiple Generations: Testing Recent Theories with Evidence from Germany," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(609), pages 576-611, March.
    5. Paweł Bukowski & Gregory Clark & Attila Gáspár & Rita Pető, 2022. "Social Mobility and Political Regimes: Intergenerational Mobility in Hungary, 1949–2017," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1551-1588, October.
    6. Zachary Ward, 2023. "Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(12), pages 3213-3248, December.
    7. Nathaniel G. Hilger, 2015. "The Great Escape: Intergenerational Mobility in the United States Since 1940," NBER Working Papers 21217, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Florencia Torche, 2015. "Analyses of Intergenerational Mobility," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 37-62, January.
    9. Chen, Yuyu & Naidu, Suresh & Yu, Tinghua & Yuchtman, Noam, 2015. "Intergenerational mobility and institutional change in 20th century China," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 44-73.
    10. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2019. "Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 1-47, January.
    11. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2018. "Intergenerational Mobility in the United States: What We Have Learned from the PSID," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 213-234, November.
    12. Timothy M. Smeeding, 2018. "The PSID in Research and Policy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 29-47, November.
    13. Florencia Torche & Alejandro Corvalan, 2018. "Estimating Intergenerational Mobility With Grouped Data," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 47(4), pages 787-811, November.
    14. Minchul Yum, 2023. "Parental Time Investment And Intergenerational Mobility," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(1), pages 187-223, February.
    15. Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2013. "Income Mobility," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 607, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    16. Richey, Jeremiah & Rosburg, Alicia, 2014. "Human capital and trends in the transmission of economic status across generations in the U.S," MPRA Paper 60113, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Catherine Guirkinger & Gani Aldashev & Alisher Aldashev & Mate Fodor, 2022. "Economic Persistence Despite Adverse Policies: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(641), pages 258-272.
    18. Colagrossi, Marco & d’Hombres, Béatrice & Schnepf, Sylke V, 2020. "Like (grand)parent, like child? Multigenerational mobility across the EU," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    19. Carl Leonard Fischer & Lorenz Meister, 2023. "Economic Determinants of Populism," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 145, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Atif Mian & Ludwig Straub & Amir Sufi, 2021. "Indebted Demand," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(4), pages 2243-2307.

    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:sae:anname:v:657:y:2015:i:1:p:63-82. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.