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A Summary of What We Know about Social Mobility

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  • Michael Hout

Abstract

Academic research on social mobility from the 1960s until now has made several facts clear. First, and most important, it is better to ask how the conditions and circumstances of early life constrain adult success than to ask who is moving up and who is not. The focus on origins keeps the substantive issues of opportunity and fairness in focus, while the mobility question leads to confusing side issues. Second, mobility is intrinsically symmetrical; each upward move is offset by a downward move in the absence of growth, expansion, or immigration. Third, social origins are not a single dimension of inequality that can be paired with the outcome of interest (without signiï¬ cant excluded variable bias); they are a comprehensive set of conditions describing the circumstances of youth. Fourth, the constraints of social origins vary by time, place, and subpopulation. These four “knowns†should inform any attempt to collect new data on mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:657:y:2015:i:1:p:27-36
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716214547174
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2005. "Fortunate Sons: New Estimates of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States Using Social Security Earnings Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 235-255, May.
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    4. 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.
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    2. Bharatee Bhusana Dash & Stanley L. Winer, 2025. "Inequality, Social Mobility and Convergence: Patterns Across the Indian States," CESifo Working Paper Series 12014, CESifo.
    3. Deirdre Bloome, 2025. "Absolute and Relative Mobility: Two Frameworks for Connecting Intergenerational Mobility in Absolute and Relative Terms," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 54(4), pages 1252-1288, November.
    4. Roantree, Barra & Russell, Helen & Alamir, Anousheh & Griffin, Míde & Maître, Bertrand & Mitchell, Tara, 2025. "Poverty, income inequality and living standards in Ireland: Fifth annual report," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number JR14.
    5. 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.
    6. Maitre, Bertrand & Curristan, Sarah & Russell, Sarah, 2022. "Intergenerational poverty in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS150.
    7. Amber Obermaier & Orestes P. Hastings, 2025. "Growing up Different(ly than Last Time We Asked): Social Status and Changing Reports of Childhood Income Rank," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 923-942, November.

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