Social Mobility

  • Gary Solon
  • Raj Chetty
  • Florencia Torche

Leaders: Raj Chetty, Gary Solon, Florencia Torche

The purpose of the Social Mobility RG is to develop and exploit new administrative sources for measuring mobility and the effects of policy on mobility out of poverty. This research group is doing so by (a) providing comprehensive analyses of intergenerational mobility based on linked administrative data from U.S. tax returns, W-2s, and other sources, and (b) developing a new infrastructure for monitoring social mobility, dubbed the American Opportunity Study, that is based on linking census and other administrative data. Here’s a sampling of projects:

Small place estimates: The Equal Opportunity Project, led by Raj Chetty, uses tax return data to monitor opportunities for mobility out of poverty. In one of the new lines of analysis coming out of this project, the first round of results at the level of “commuting zones” are being redone at a more detailed level (e.g., census block level), thus allowing for even better inferences about the effects of place.

The American Opportunity Study: This research group is also collaborating with the Census Bureau to develop a new infrastructure for monitoring mobility that treats linked decennial census data as the spine on which other administrative data are hung.

Colleges and rising income inequality: Where do poor children go to attend college? The “Mobility Report Card” will convey the joint distribution of parent and student incomes for every Title IV institution in the United States.

The “absolute mobility” of the poor: What fraction of poor children grow up to earn more than their parents? Have rates of absolute upward mobility changed over time? This project develops a new method of estimating rates of absolute mobility for the 1940-1984 birth cohorts.

Intergenerational elasticities in the U.S.: There remains some debate about the size of intergenerational elasticities in the U.S. A rarely-used sample of 1987 tax data provides new evidence on U.S. elasticities.

Mobility - CPI Research

Title Author Media
Sifting and Sorting: Personal Contacts and Hiring in a Retail Bank Fernandez, Roberto M., Nancy Weinberg

Sifting and Sorting: Personal Contacts and Hiring in a Retail Bank

Author: Fernandez, Roberto M., Nancy Weinberg
Publisher: American Sociological Review
Date: 12/1997
Getting a Job Mark Granovetter

Getting a Job

Author: Mark Granovetter
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 03/1995
Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States Solon, Gary

Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States

Author: Solon, Gary
Publisher: American Economic Review
Date: 06/1992
Economic Action and Social Structure Granovetter, Mark S.

Economic Action and Social Structure

Author: Granovetter, Mark S.
Publisher: American Journal of Sociology
Date: 03/1985
Comparative Social Mobility Revisited: Models of Convergence and Divergence in 16 Countries David B. Grusky , Robert M. Hauser

Comparative Social Mobility Revisited: Models of Convergence and Divergence in 16 Countries

Author: David B. Grusky , Robert M. Hauser
Publisher:
Date: 02/1984

mobility - CPI Affiliates

Dennis Hogan's picture Dennis Hogan Robert E. Turner Distinguished Professor of Population Studies and Sociology, Emeritus
Brown University
Donald J. Treiman's picture Donald J. Treiman Distinguished Professor of Sociology Emeritus; Research Professor, UCLA Faculty Associate, California Center for Population Research
University of California , Los Angeles
Fiona Devine's picture Fiona Devine Head of Alliance Manchester Business School; Professor of Sociology
The University of Manchester
Hans-Peter Blossfeld Professor of Sociology
Bamberg University
Henryk Domanski's picture Henryk Domanski Professor, Director, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology
Polish Academy of Sciences

Pages

Mobility - Other Research

Title Author Media
The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies Anthony Giddens

The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies

Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: Hutchinson & Co.
Date:
The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification Randall Collins

The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification

Author: Randall Collins
Publisher: Academic Press
Date:
Birth and Fortune: The Impact of Numbers on Personal Welfare Easterlin, Richard

Birth and Fortune: The Impact of Numbers on Personal Welfare

Author: Easterlin, Richard
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date:
The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen

The Theory of the Leisure Class

Author: Thorstein Veblen
Publisher: Modern Library
Date:
Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-2002 Thomas Piketty and Emanuel Saez

Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-2002

Author: Thomas Piketty and Emanuel Saez
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date:

Mobility - Multimedia

Sorry, but no media items exist for this research group.