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    Social Mobility

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    Holy Aminadoki
    This document discusses social mobility, which refers to people's ability to change their economic status over time. It defines three types of capital (economic, social, and cultural) that influence social mobility. Social mobility can occur between generations (intergenerational) or within one's lifetime (intragenerational). The US has lower social mobility than other developed countries, and there are also racial disparities, with black children less likely to rise out of poverty than white children. Education is a factor in mobility, but high costs may restrict it. While women's incomes have increased in recent decades, most social mobility is still affected by one's family background.

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    Social Mobility

    Uploaded by

    Holy Aminadoki
    209 views29 pages
    This document discusses social mobility, which refers to people's ability to change their economic status over time. It defines three types of capital (economic, social, and cultural) that influence social mobility. Social mobility can occur between generations (intergenerational) or within one's lifetime (intragenerational). The US has lower social mobility than other developed countries, and there are also racial disparities, with black children less likely to rise out of poverty than white children. Education is a factor in mobility, but high costs may restrict it. While women's incomes have increased in recent decades, most social mobility is still affected by one's family background.

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    A power point document briefly analyzing social mobility in the US.

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    This document discusses social mobility, which refers to people's ability to change their economic status over time. It defines three types of capital (economic, social, and cultural) that influence social mobility. Social mobility can occur between generations (intergenerational) or within one's lifetime (intragenerational). The US has lower social mobility than other developed countries, and there are also racial disparities, with black children less likely to rise out of poverty than white children. Education is a factor in mobility, but high costs may restrict it. While women's incomes have increased in recent decades, most social mobility is still affected by one's family background.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    209 views29 pages

    Social Mobility

    Uploaded by

    Holy Aminadoki
    This document discusses social mobility, which refers to people's ability to change their economic status over time. It defines three types of capital (economic, social, and cultural) that influence social mobility. Social mobility can occur between generations (intergenerational) or within one's lifetime (intragenerational). The US has lower social mobility than other developed countries, and there are also racial disparities, with black children less likely to rise out of poverty than white children. Education is a factor in mobility, but high costs may restrict it. While women's incomes have increased in recent decades, most social mobility is still affected by one's family background.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 29

    Social Mobility

    Tamuno-omie H. Aminadoki
    Laura Chalmers
    Steve Gin
    Simon Pelletier
    Introduction

    Definition
    Types
    Contributing Factors
    Policy Implications

    What is Social Mobility?
    Social Mobility refers to the ability of people
    to move through the distribution of income
    over time. (Tresch Example 5.1.)
    People get rewarded for intelligence and
    skill
    People get rewarded for their efforts
    The American Dream
    American Dream - The Reality
    Coming from a wealthy family is essential
    or very important to getting ahead
    Income differences in the US are too large
    It is the responsibility of government to
    reduce differences in income

    Factors that Enable Social Mobility
    Pierre Bourdieu, a 20th century french
    sociologist defined three types of capital.
    Economic Capital
    Social Capital
    Cultural Capital
    Economic Capital
    Economic capital in this context does not
    mean the standard risk capital associated
    with firms in economics.
    Instead this refers to the financial resources
    of the individual.
    Social Capital
    Social Capital is the idea that social networks
    not only have value in utility but have an
    economic value. The amounts of each type
    of capital you have influence your ability to
    change all your types of capitals.
    Cultural Capital
    Cultural capital represents your skills, and
    education. In Economics we refer to this as
    Human Capital.
    Head-Start Assets
    Head-Start Assets are what we refer to in
    Economics as Endowments. Your ability to
    change your situation from this given assets
    is Social Mobility. Using Bourdieus
    definitions we associate social mobility with
    more changes in income.
    Intra-Generational Mobility
    Change of social or economic status over
    ones own lifetime.
    Inter-Generational Mobility
    Comparison of economic status between
    child and parent. It shows what portion of
    children move into a different income
    bracket than their parents.
    Absolute Income Mobility
    Measure of living standards within a society.
    Often a percentage of individuals with a
    higher income than their parents.
    This is Non Zero-sum.
    Relative Income Mobility
    The likelihood with which one can move into
    a higher quintile than ones parents.
    Zero-sum situation.
    Comparing Social Mobility Between Developed
    Countries
    The Great Gatsby Curve.
    Empirical Evidence on Social Mobility in US
    2002 Quintile
    1968 Quintiles 1st Quintile 2nd Quintile

    3rd Quintile

    4th Quintile

    5th Quintile

    Total
    1st Quintile 34.2 23.9 24.3 10.1 7.6 100
    2nd Quintile 19.8 25.4 25.7 16.1 13.1 100
    3rd Quintile

    12.1 20.4 16.5 26.6 24.3 100
    4th Quintile

    12.9 15.6 19.4 25.5 26.6 100
    5th Quintile

    21.0 14.4 13.5 21.6 29.5 100
    Total 100 100 100 100 100 100
    Why Social Mobility?
    Two sides to social mobility: Upward mobility
    and Downward mobility.
    In order to move up the income distribution
    we must knock someone down.
    On Race
    The most detrimental racial divide in the U.S. today is arguably in
    social mobility. This is, for example, with respect to the
    opportunity gap between a child born white, and a child born black.

    Racial gaps in education, employment and wealth reflect the
    disproportionate representation of black families at the bottom of
    the income scale.
    On Race cont.
    The table below, on a 2012 data by the The Pew Charitable Trusts,
    shows that black rates of upward social mobility are lower.

    Black children are more likely to be born into poverty than white
    children.

    More than half of black adults raised at the bottom of the income scale
    remain stuck there as adults, compared to a third of whites:

    On Race cont.
    Education
    Plays a major role in determining social mobility.
    It facilitates movement up the ladder suggesting that
    more and better education within a nation will increase
    economic mobility.

    Education
    Education can have a negative impact by being a barrier
    to entry through high tuition costs and extreme
    competition.
    Education requirements have increased in the last
    decade and may hinder the role of education as a tool
    for economic mobility.

    Women and Men
    Women in their 30s have made significant gains in
    income over the last 40 years, with income increasing
    almost fourfold. While mens income has increased very
    little.
    The majority of the increase in the income of women
    has come from the increased employment rate of
    women. Thus much of the upward mobility of women is
    due to a greater share of them in the work force.
    Mobility and Redistribution
    The Prospect of Upward Mobility (POUM) Hypothesis
    explains why some poor and working class voters do not
    support efforts by government to redistribute wealth
    through higher tax rates: they take into account the
    fact that they, or their children, may move up in the
    income distribution and therefore be hurt by such
    policies
    Mobility and Redistribution
    The POUM hypothesis relies on three key assumptions:
    1. Policies enacted in the present will endure into and
    impact the future
    2. Poorer works are not too risk averse
    3. Poor workers must have an optimistic view of their
    future, as they expect to go from poorer than
    average to richer than average
    Questions?
    Citations
    http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/social-mobility-
    memos/posts/2013/08/28-social-mobility-race-opportunity-reeves
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-fSgDZHvvw
    http://www.princeton.edu/~rbenabou/papers/d8zkmee3.pdf
    Lopreato, Joseph and Hazelrigg, Lawrence E. (December 1970).
    "Intragenerational versus Intergenerational Mobility in Relation to
    Sociopolitical Attitudes". Social Forces (University of North Carolina
    Press) 49 (2): 200210
    The Great Gatsby Curve Paul Krugman| 15 January 2012

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