Analyses of Intergenerational Mobility: An Interdisciplinary Review. Issue 1 (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Torche, Florencia
• Editors: Grusky, David B.; Smeeding, Timothy M.; Snipp, C. Matthew
• Is Part Of: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Volume 657:Issue 1(2015:Jan.)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 62
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: class mobility -- income mobility -- social inequality -- equality of opportunity; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716214547476
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7162

Abstract

This article reviews the sociological and economic literature on intergenerational mobility. Findings on social class, occupational status, earnings, and income mobility are discussed and discrepancies among them are evaluated. The review also examines nonlinearities in the intergenerational association, variation in mobility across advanced industrial countries, and recent mobility trends in the United States. The literature suggests an association between inequality and economic mobility at the country level, with the United States featuring higher inequality and lower mobility than other advanced industrial countries. However, mobility has not declined in the United States over the recent decades in which inequality has expanded. The inequality-mobility relationship fails to emerge when occupational measures of mobility are used, likely because these measures do not fully capture some mechanisms of economic reproduction.