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Moving Up and Sliding Down: An Empirical Assessment of the Effect of Social Mobility on Subjective Wellbeing

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  • Paul Dolan
  • Grace Lordan

Abstract

Many people remain in the same income group as their parents and this is a cause of much discussion and some concern. In this work, we examine how intergenerational mobility affects subjective wellbeing (SWB) using the British Cohort Study. Our SWB measures encapsulate life satisfaction and mental health. We find that relative income mobility is a significant predictor of life satisfaction and mental health whether people move upward or downward. For absolute income, mobility is only a predictor of SWB and mental health outcomes if the person moves downward. We also explore pathways through which income mobility can impact on these outcomes. In particular, we present evidence that suggests much of the effect of income mobility on SWB is due to changes in the perception of financial security. But those who slide down are still less satisfied with their lives over and above any effect of financial insecurity. Overall, there is an asymmetric effect of income mobility: the losses of sliding on down are larger than the gains of moving up.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Dolan & Grace Lordan, 2013. "Moving Up and Sliding Down: An Empirical Assessment of the Effect of Social Mobility on Subjective Wellbeing," CEP Discussion Papers dp1190, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1190
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    Cited by:

    1. Nikolaev, Boris & Burns, Ainslee, 2014. "Intergenerational mobility and subjective well-being—Evidence from the general social survey," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 82-96.
    2. Lex Thijssen & Maarten H. J. Wolbers, 2016. "Determinants of Intergenerational Downward Mobility in the Netherlands," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 995-1010, September.
    3. Yi-Hui Christine Huang & Jie Sun & Ruoheng Liu & Jennifer Lau & Qinxian Cai, 2022. "Country/Region Level Pandemic Severity Moderates the Relationships among Risk Experience, Perceived Life Satisfaction, and Psychological Distress in COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Luciana Méndez, 2020. "So Dissatisfied to Leave? The Role of Perceptions, Expectations and Beliefs on Youths’ Intention to Migrate: Evidence from a Developing Country," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(8), pages 2981-3006, December.
    5. Bettina Schuck & Nadia Steiber, 2018. "Does Intergenerational Educational Mobility Shape the Well-Being of Young Europeans? Evidence from the European Social Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 1237-1255, October.
    6. Luciana Méndez, 2017. "So dissatisfied to leave? The role of perceptions, expectations and beliefs on youths' intention to migrate," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 17-12, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    7. Laura Ravazzini & Florian Chávez-Juárez, 2018. "Which Inequality Makes People Dissatisfied with Their Lives? Evidence of the Link Between Life Satisfaction and Inequalities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 1119-1143, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    income mobility; social mobility; inter-generational; life satisfaction; SWB; subjective wellbeing; mental health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

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