Developing New National Data on Social Mobility A Workshop Summary (2013) / Chapter Skim
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2 Studying Social Mobility
2 Studying Social Mobility
Pages 5-12
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From page 5... ...
Defining Social Mobility Hout characterized popular notions of social mobility by quoting a lyric from a 1980s song by the popular singer Billy Joel: "Each child had a pretty good shot/to get at least as much as their old man got." While a comparison is made with the "old man," the lyric puts the focus on the individual, on discrete opportunities and achievements rather than con 5
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From page 6... ...
According to Hout, this leads to "a quantitative question regarding the degree to which success in life depends on the circumstances of birth and recasts parents' attributes as attributes of the research subject." In a further point of emphasis, Hout underscored that not all mobility is upward. In the popular imagination, Hout noted, mobility tends to be equated with progress; however, "no mobility table ever had an empty triangle showing no downward mobility." As Hout pointed out, "Mobility is symmetrical in the absence of growth and immigration." Instances of downward mobility, he explained, "actually offset upward moves unless there has been substantial growth and/or immigration into the population," so long as each origin category is the same size as each destination category.
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From page 7... ...
Hout noted "the famous increase in economic inequalities" as well as the decreasing variation in parents' educations and number of siblings as factors that affect how social origins are characterized and how their impact changes over time. Looking over the range of dimensions of social origins, Hout remarked, "the variance in some of these is increasing; in some it is decreasing." This led Hout to his final observation that "any simple bivariate mobility tablebased estimate is going to be subject to substantial excluded variable bias.
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From page 8... ...
The concern and anxiety was really focused on the middle class." Indeed, in Snipp's view, "worrying about the middle class became something of a national obsession." Yet, whether the conversation has occurred in the media, public policy think tanks, or government, he observed, "most of this conversation was a data-free conversation" but that ongoing popular and political attention to issues of social mobility calls for better data to inform the conversation. Economic and Social Changes as Reasons to Revisit Mobility Renewed attention to social mobility is also compelled by a number of significant economic and social changes, Snipp asserted.
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From page 9... ...
These include changes in family structure, education, labor markets, and immigration. Regarding families and their multiple and changing forms, Snipp noted, "It is an open question whether or not those kids have the same opportunity that the kids growing up in two-parent families, where both parents are married." Likewise, it is difficult to establish the implications for social mobility of changes in education, such as the emergence of new types of training institutions, charter schools, and online certifications.
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From page 10... ...
In the current mood of concern about the loss of the American dream, Snipp suggested, "people begin to worry about passing on the benefits and material wealth that they have acquired over their lifetime." They therefore undertake a variety of investments -- "private schooling, tutors, music lessons, afterschool sports, extracurricular activities, travel, a whole range of things that people can do for their children to sort of enrich their background and experience and provide them a leg up into the world once they have entered the job market or even before when they start for their schooling." Snipp offered evidence of the disparities in time spent on various kinds of literacy activities with children. Relatively advantaged parents spend more time with their children and read more to them, which "has been shown to have an impact on how well kids do when they first enter school." Yet again, "these differential investments by middle and upper middle class families benefit their children even very early on in their lives." Snipp acknowledged that his presentation had moved through a great many factors swiftly.
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From page 11... ...
In considering the possibility of either another large-scale survey or surveys, comparable to the OCG, or a collection of efforts "to do a good job of measuring social mobility in the United States," Hauser emphasized the value of a truly broad-based study. Referring to the myriad social changes highlighted in the background papers and discussed throughout the workshop, Hauser noted "the need for [a broad-based study]
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