Social Mobility in the Philippines: A Research Road Map

In 2016, the National Economic and Development Authority launched AmBisyon Natin 2040, which embodies the long-term aspirations of Filipinos for themselves and for the country. At the heart of these aspirations is the idea of social mobility or the movements of entities from lower socioeconomic status to higher socioeconomic outcomes. However, issues on poverty and inequality of opportunities remain and these can potentially derail the attainment of these aspirations. To this end, this paper provides the rationale behind the development of a research agenda on social mobility and reviews materials that can help in quantifying distributional changes and in identifying processes or mechanisms affecting mobility. It also identifies available datasets and existing studies in the Philippines that can be used to enrich the state of social mobility research in the country. Doing so will help policymakers come up with a system of programs or interventions to facilitate and sustain upward mobility and, at the same time, address issues such as in-work poverty and inequality.