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
The Strength of Weak Ties Granovetter, Mark S.

The Strength of Weak Ties

Author: Granovetter, Mark S.
Publisher: American Journal of Sociology
Date: 05/1973
Political Power and Social Classes Nicos Poulantzas

Political Power and Social Classes

Author: Nicos Poulantzas
Publisher: Verso
Date:
Approaches to Class Analysis

Approaches to Class Analysis

Author:
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date:
Economic Growth and Income Inequality Kuznets, Simon

Economic Growth and Income Inequality

Author: Kuznets, Simon
Publisher: American Economic Review
Date:
Luxury Fever: Why Money Fails to Satisfy in an Era of Excess Robert H Frank

Luxury Fever: Why Money Fails to Satisfy in an Era of Excess

Author: Robert H Frank
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Date:

mobility - CPI Affiliates

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
Hiroshi Ishida's picture Hiroshi Ishida Professor of Sociology, Institute of Social Sciences
University of Tokyo
Ineke Maas's picture Ineke Maas Associate Professor of Sociology; Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, VU University Amsterdam
Utrecht University
Ira I. Katznelson's picture Ira I. Katznelson Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History
Columbia University

Pages

Mobility - Other Research

Title Author Media
The Making of the New English Working Class E.P. Thompson

The Making of the New English Working Class

Author: E.P. Thompson
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date:
Gendering the Job: Networks and Recruitment at a Call Center Roberto M. Fernandez and Lourdes M. Sosa.

Gendering the Job: Networks and Recruitment at a Call Center

Author: Roberto M. Fernandez and Lourdes M. Sosa.
Publisher: American Journal of Sociology
Date:
The American Occupational Structure Peter M. Blau and Otis Dudley Duncan, with the...

The American Occupational Structure

Author: Peter M. Blau and Otis Dudley Duncan, with the...
Publisher: Free Press
Date:

The objective of this book is to present a systematic analysis of the American occupational structure, and, thus, of the major foundation of the stratification system in this society. Processes of social mobility from one generation to the next and from career beginnings to occupational destinations are considered to reflect the dynamics of the occupational structure. By analyzing the patterns of these occupational movements, the conditions that affect them, and some of their consequences, one attempts to explain part of the dynamics of the stratification system in the United States. The inquiry is based on a considerable amount of empirical data collected from a representative sample of over 20,000 American men between the ages of 20 and 64. The survey of "Occupational Changes in a Generation" was carried out as an adjunct to the monthly "Current Population Survey" of the Bureau of the Census. The analysis of the data collected in the survey constitutes the bulk of the material reported in the present book, although occasionally other sources are drawn on as well. As the comparative data from a variety of societies needed for refining the theory of stratification are not available in this study, it has been supplemented with data from mobility surveys of other countries.

International Differences in Male Wage Inequality: Institutions versus Market Forces Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn

International Differences in Male Wage Inequality: Institutions versus Market Forces

Author: Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn
Publisher: Journal of Political Economy
Date:
Changes in the Structure of Wages in the 1980’s: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations John Bound and George Johnson

Changes in the Structure of Wages in the 1980’s: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations

Author: John Bound and George Johnson
Publisher: American Economic Review
Date:

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