Economic and Social Mobility New Directions for Data, Research, and Policy (2025) / Chapter Skim
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7 New Directions for Research and Policy
7 New Directions for Research and Policy
Pages 206-223
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From page 206... ...
State governments play an important role in establishing policies on family planning and formation, education, financial institutions, and spatial issues. Counties and local governments share authority to enact zoning laws and design public transportation and other transportation policy, and they also have some authority regarding education and social welfare program policy.
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From page 207... ...
They could also support relative mobility by detaching young people growing up in poor households from disadvantages of birth. A side effect of the safety net approach is a one-sided focus on the mobility challenges faced by low-income populations, with little focus on the effects of disproportionate opportunities among those born at the top of the resource distribution.
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From page 208... ...
The final section reviews the report's discussion of a National Mobility Center and highlights the importance of combining different sources of data and methodological approaches to understand mobility dynamics. EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY Considerable evidence makes it clear that what happens in early life shapes people's life trajectories.
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From page 209... ...
Conclusion 2-2: Socioeconomic disparities in parenting behaviors and resources are associated with disparities in the social and economic well-being of children throughout the life course, thus providing a mechanism for the persistence of advantage and disadvantage across generations. Conclusion 2-3: Early childhood education programs, and reproductive health policies and programs that increase access to contraception and abortion, show promise for increasing upward intergenerational mobility.
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From page 210... ...
In addition, these surveys should be linked to administrative data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service, and state and federal agencies that administer core social welfare programs.
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From page 211... ...
At larger levels of analysis -- such as cities, counties, and commuting zones -- the forces that influence economic and social mobility include segregation and local labor market conditions. Conclusion 3-3: Most spatial policy strategies are either housing mobility policies, which relocate families to higher-opportunity areas, or place-conscious investments, which aim to bring opportunity and investment into disadvantaged communities.
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From page 212... ...
Although existing research has demonstrated that schooling, public funding, community violence, social capital, and racial and economic segregation are all strongly associated with economic mobility, a better understanding is needed of the processes by which these factors lead to mobility. Foregrounding heterogeneity (e.g., who takes up housing vouchers, the characteristics of neighborhoods in which families start and end up, the age and gender of children who move)
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From page 213... ...
How does a system of postsecondary education build ladders to economic success for anyone, from any starting point? While what happens to individuals before they reach this stage is of critical importance, access to and persistence in postsecondary education is highly stratified by income, location of residence, and racial minority status.
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From page 214... ...
This data limitation can be addressed by linking survey data with administrative data. Conclusion 4-3: Although the attainment of a 4-year bachelor's degree is a very strong predictor of economic well-being and security, postsecondary education has become an increasingly risky proposition for many adults and families, especially those who have low incomes and are racial minorities.
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From page 215... ...
Recommendation 4-6: Researchers should study the effectiveness of programs and policies to support the trajectories of those without bachelor's degrees, as well as multiple transitions and pathways between schooling, training, and work. Although other parts of the report bring attention to nonmainstream institutions, such as alternative credit providers, this report's conclusions and recommendations on postsecondary education emphasize reforming mainstream institutions.
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From page 216... ...
Few existing policies explicitly target the intergenerational persistence of wealth, which is striking given its importance to economic and social mobility. Blacks and Hispanics have historically faced major barriers to wealth accumulation, and Conclusion 5-2 calls attention to the structural features of society that may produce such disparities in the accumulation and intergenerational transmission of wealth; and Conclusion 5-4 sets forth a framework for policy intervention that is relevant to the full range of the wealth distribution.
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From page 217... ...
DATA INFRASTRUCTURE The United States is moving toward having a modern integrated data system based on linked administrative data that will rival the systems in many European countries. Developing sustainable structures that ensure increased and equitable access to new data resources remains a central challenge ahead.
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From page 218... ...
Code Titles 13 and 26, need to be modernized to facilitate research, as they have proven to be inadequate amid the recent growth of research using linked administrative data. A key advantage of emerging linked administrative datasets is the option for researchers to obtain data from multiple sources and agencies through efforts such as the National Secure Data Service.
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From page 219... ...
A National Mobility Center could serve as a key resource for facilitating data access, reporting on current mobility statistics and analyzing trends, identifying promising systemic and institutional interventions, developing viable approaches for evaluation, and building an interdisciplinary research community to study economic and social mobility. Recommendation 6-1: Building on the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act)
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From page 220... ...
Census Bureau should assign a PIK to individual Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms, as well as to individual-level administrative data on federal financial aid receipt. NATIONAL MOBILITY CENTER What can be done to forward the research agenda summarized in this chapter?
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From page 221... ...
And it could make the confidential administrative data needed to study mobility more accessible -- with proper protections -- to a broader group of researchers. Such a center could become an important hub that pushes forward much of the research agenda discussed in this report; it would make this metric of economic well-being a priority commensurate to the concern and goals of the American public.
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From page 222... ...
that are drivers of economic and social mobility and may also be targets for policy intervention; it can also reveal the perceptions and beliefs held by those for whom programs and policies are targeted, which aids in more effective policy designs. This report highlights numerous examples of insights offered to the study of mobility in understanding patterns of family formation, the importance of place in determining mobility, and in understanding how and why higher education may or may not be a path toward upward mobility.
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From page 223... ...
history, even as many observers may rightly argue that it has been, at times and for many groups, severely circumscribed. There is no question, however, that the economic and social mobility of groups of Americans who were systematically excluded for generations -- particularly Black Americans and women -- has improved over time, even though the pace has been slow and deep inequalities in opportunity persist.
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