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Social Mobility in a High-Inequality Regime

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  • Pablo A. Mitnik
  • Erin Cumberworth
  • David B. Grusky

Abstract

Are opportunities to get ahead growing more unequal? Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS), it is possible to provide evidence on this question, evidence that is suggestive but must be carefully interpreted because the samples are relatively small. The GSS data reveal an increase in class reproduction among young and middle-age adults that is driven by the growing advantage of the professional-managerial class relative to all other classes. This trend is largely consistent with our new “top-income hypothesis†that posits that rising income inequality registers its effects on social mobility almost exclusively in the divide between the professional-managerial class and all other classes. We develop a two-factor model in which the foregoing effects of the inequality takeoff are set against the countervailing effects of the expansion of mass education. As the model implies, the trend in intergenerational association takes on a convex shape in the younger age groups, with the change appearing to accelerate in the most recent decade. These results suggest that the takeoff in income inequality may account in part for the decline in mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:663:y:2016:i:1:p:140-184
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716215596971
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    Cited by:

    1. Luis Fuentes & Oscar Mac-Clure, 2020. "The middle classes and the subjective representation of urban space in Santiago de Chile," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(13), pages 2612-2627, October.
    2. Kuha, Jouni & Bukodi, Erzsébet & Goldthorpe, John H., 2021. "Mediation analysis for associations of categorical variables: the role of education in social class mobility in Britain," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110157, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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