IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soueco/v25y2024i1p7-25.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intergenerational Mobility in South Asia

Author

Listed:
  • Zanbaz Ahmed Khan
  • Biswajit Patra

Abstract

This article analyses the movement of intergenerational mobility (IGM) in South Asia from birth cohorts comprising 1950–1980 using the World Bank’s data on IGM. The article compares the IGM movements across countries to account for the causal factors of the IGM. Exploratory data analysis and Bayesian regression have been used in this study for empirical analysis. We note that in the past three decades, the share of primary parental education in South Asia constitutes 79% of the total, while the children who achieved the highest level of education constitute only 10%. Children in Sri Lanka have been enrolled in school for the greatest number of years, but the absolute IGM in India is greater than Sri Lanka. Bhutan lags in average years of educational attainment, yet their relative mobility surpasses every country in South Asia. The likelihood that Pakistani children’s status shall be independent of their parental status is as low as 20%. Despite variation in parental education, absolute IGM in India is highest in South Asia. Variation in parental education reduces the degree of independence in the next generation. Relative measure of mobility is a better indicator of social mobility than the absolute measure. JEL Codes: I21, I24, I28, J24, J62, N35

Suggested Citation

  • Zanbaz Ahmed Khan & Biswajit Patra, 2024. "Intergenerational Mobility in South Asia," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 25(1), pages 7-25, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:25:y:2024:i:1:p:7-25
    DOI: 10.1177/13915614241226538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13915614241226538
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/13915614241226538?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher Herrington, 2015. "Public Education Financing, Earnings Inequality, and Intergenerational Mobility," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(4), pages 822-842, October.
    2. Black, Sandra E. & Devereux, Paul J., 2011. "Recent Developments in Intergenerational Mobility," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 16, pages 1487-1541, Elsevier.
    3. Andreu Arenas & Jean Hindriks, 2021. "Intergenerational Mobility and Unequal School Opportunity," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(635), pages 1027-1050.
    4. Mohammad Mafizur Rahman & Rezwanul Hasan Rana & Suborna Barua, 2019. "The drivers of economic growth in South Asia: evidence from a dynamic system GMM approach," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(3), pages 564-577, August.
    5. Neidhöfer, Guido & Serrano, Joaquín & Gasparini, Leonardo, 2018. "Educational inequality and intergenerational mobility in Latin America: A new database," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 329-349.
    6. Solon, Gary, 1999. "Intergenerational mobility in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 29, pages 1761-1800, Elsevier.
    7. Diego Restuccia & Carlos Urrutia, 2004. "Intergenerational Persistence of Earnings: The Role of Early and College Education," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1354-1378, December.
    8. Miles Corak, 2013. "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 79-102, Summer.
    9. Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2016. "Innovative strategies in higher education for accelerated human resource development in South Asia: Bangladesh," ADB Reports RPT146955, Asian Development Bank (ADB).
    10. Gary S. Becker & Scott Duke Kominers & Kevin M. Murphy & Jörg L. Spenkuch, 2018. "A Theory of Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(S1), pages 7-25.
    11. Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Christoph Lakner & Maria Ana Lugo & Berk Özler, 2018. "Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth: How Much Can Cross‐Country Regressions Really Tell Us?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(4), pages 800-827, December.
    12. Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2016. "Innovative Strategies in Higher Education for Accelerated Human Resource Development in South Asia: Nepal," ADB Reports RPT146956, Asian Development Bank (ADB).
    13. Sang Yoon (Tim) Lee & Ananth Seshadri, 2019. "On the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 855-921.
    14. World Bank, 2021. "World Development Report 2021 [Informe sobre el desarrollo mundial 2021]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 35218, August.
    15. Gu, Xiang & Hua, Sheng & McKenzie, Tom & Zheng, Yanqiao, 2022. "Like father, like son? Parental input, access to higher education, and social mobility in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    16. Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2016. "Innovative Strategies in Higher Education for Accelerated Human Resource Development in South Asia: Sri Lanka," ADB Reports RPT146957, Asian Development Bank (ADB).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. van der Weide, Roy & Lakner, Christoph & Mahler, Daniel Gerszon & Narayan, Ambar & Gupta, Rakesh, 2024. "Intergenerational mobility around the world: A new database," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    2. Hanol Lee & Jong‐Wha Lee, 2021. "Patterns and determinants of intergenerational educational mobility: Evidence across countries," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 70-90, February.
    3. Van Der Weide,Roy & Lakner,Christoph & Mahler,Daniel Gerszon & Narayan,Ambar & Nichanametla Ramasubbaiah,Rakesh Gupta, 2021. "Intergenerational Mobility around the World," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9707, The World Bank.
    4. Guido Neidhöfer, 2019. "Intergenerational mobility and the rise and fall of inequality: Lessons from Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 499-520, December.
    5. Minchul Yum, 2023. "Parental Time Investment And Intergenerational Mobility," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(1), pages 187-223, February.
    6. Huang, Xiao & Huang, Shoujun & Shui, Ailun, 2021. "Government spending and intergenerational income mobility: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 387-414.
    7. Hellier, Joël, 2017. "Stratified higher education,social mobility at the top and efficiency: The case of the French ‘Grandes écoles’," MPRA Paper 76724, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Minchul Yum, 2015. "Parental Time Investment and Human Capital Formation: A Quantitative Analysis of Intergenerational Mobility," 2015 Meeting Papers 996, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    9. Rauh, Christopher, 2017. "Voting, education, and the Great Gatsby Curve," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Ahsan, Md Nazmul & Emran, M. Shahe & Shilpi, Forhad, 2024. "Complementarities and intergenerational educational mobility: Theory and evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 170-191.
    11. M. Shahe Emran & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Yajing Jiang & Yan Sun, 2023. "Occupational dualism and intergenerational educational mobility in the rural economy: evidence from China and India," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(3), pages 743-773, September.
    12. Diego Daruich & Julian Kozlowski, 2020. "Explaining Intergenerational Mobility: The Role of Fertility and Family Transfers," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 220-245, April.
    13. Javier Cortés Orihuela & Juan D. Díaz & Pablo Gutiérrez Cubillos & Pablo A. Troncoso & Gabriel I. Villarroel, 2024. "Intergenerational earnings mobility in Chile: the tale of the upper tail," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(5), pages 2411-2447, November.
    14. Arenas, Andreu & Malgouyres, Clément, 2018. "Countercyclical school attainment and intergenerational mobility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 97-111.
    15. Théophile T. Azomahou & Eleni Yitbarek, 2021. "Intergenerational mobility in education: Is Africa different?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 503-523, July.
    16. Shu Wang & Xiao Yu & Kuo Zhang & Jipeng Pei & Karlis Rokpelnis & Xuelong Wang, 2022. "How does education affect intergenerational income mobility in Chinese society?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 774-792, May.
    17. Muñoz, Ercio, 2021. "The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean," SocArXiv mc78h, Center for Open Science.
    18. Tang, Le & Sun, Shiyu & Yang, Weiguo, 2021. "Does government education expenditure boost intergenerational mobility? Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 13-22.
    19. Liu, Qijun & Song, Lijie, 2022. "Do intergovernmental transfers boost intergenerational income mobility? Evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 293-309.
    20. Yan, Weibo & Gao, Sihan, 2024. "Family background and intergenerational mobility in a transition economy: Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intergenerational mobility; inequality; education; economic growth; South Asia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:25:y:2024:i:1:p:7-25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ips.lk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.