Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T18:54:27.784Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Intergenerational mobility in Britain: new evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

John Ermisch
Affiliation:
Professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Research University of Essex
Marco Francesconi
Affiliation:
Principal Research Officer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research University of Essex
Get access

Summary

In this chapter, we analyse the degree of intergenerational mobility in Britain using a data source that has never been used before for this purpose: the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) for the period 1991–99. Examination of this issue is, at present, limited by the short life of the survey – indeed, the first wave of data of the BHPS was collected in 1991. Nonetheless, such data allow us to make two distinct contributions. The first is substantive and refers to a better understanding (and measurement) of social mobility in Britain for a large sample of individuals from several cohorts and different backgrounds. This can be achieved by employing a measure of socio-economic position that is commonly used in sociology, the Hope–Goldthorpe score of occupational prestige. The results from this analysis are interesting in their own right, and may help integrate the findings that have emerged from sociology and economics in the recent past. The second contribution is methodological, and suggestive of the potentials that the BHPS offers for future research in this and related areas. This goal is achieved by matching parents to their young adult children who are in the labor market, and allows us to examine mobility using measures of economic position that are more conventional for economists, such as earnings and income. Although the estimates are far from conclusive, they are suggestive of avenues for future research.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, A. B. (1981). “On Intergenerational Mobility in Britain.” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics. Vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 194–218CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, A. B., A. K. Maynard, and C. G. Trinder (1983). Parents and Children: Incomes in Two Generations. London: Heinemann
Banks, J., R. Blundell, and J. P. Smith (2001). “Wealth Portfolios in the UK and the US.” Mimeo, University College London, August
Becker, Gary S. (1964). Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis. New York: Columbia University Press
Becker, Gary S. (1981). A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press
Becker, Gary S., and Tomes, Nigel (1979). “An Equilibrium Theory of the Distribution of Income and Intergenerational Mobility.” Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 87, no. 6, pp. 1153–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S., and Tomes, Nigel (1986). “Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families.” Journal of Labor Economics. Vol. 4, no. 3, pp. S1–S39CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Behrman, Jere R. (1997). “Intrahousehold Distribution and the Family.” In M. R. Rosenzweig and O. Stark (editors). Handbook of Population and Family Economics. Amsterdam: North-HollandCrossRef
Behrman, Jere R., Pollak, R. A., and Taubman, Paul (1989). “Family Resources, Family Size, and Access to Financing for College Education.” Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 398–419CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behrman, Jere R., and Taubman, Paul (1990). “The Intergenerational Correlation Between Children's Adult Earnings and Their Parents' Income: Results from the Michigan Panel Survey of Income Dynamics.” Review of Income and Wealth. Vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 115–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Björklund, Anders, and Jäntti, Markus (2000). “Intergenerational Mobility of Economic Status in Comparative Perspective.” Nordic Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 26, no.1, pp. 3–33Google Scholar
Blau, Francine D., and Grossberg, A. J. (1992). “Maternal Labour Supply and Children's Cognitive Development.” Review of Economics and Statistics. Vol. 74, pp. 474–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breen, R., and Goldthorpe, John H. (2001). “Class, Mobility and Merit: the Experience of Two British Birth Cohorts.” European Sociological Review. Vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 81–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corak, Miles, and Heisz, Andrew (1999). “The Intergenerational Earnings and Income Mobility of Canadian Men: Evidence from Longitudinal Income Tax Data.” Journal of Human Resources. Vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 504–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dearden, Lorraine, Machin, Stephen, and Reed, Howard (1997). “Intergenerational Mobility in Britain.” Economic Journal. Vol. 107, no. 1, pp. 47–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, Robert, and John H. Goldthorpe (1992). The Constant Flux: A Study of Class Mobility in Industrial Societies. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Ermisch, J. (1999). “Prices, Parents and Young People's Household Formation.” Journal of Urban Economics. Vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 47–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ermisch, J., and Francesconi, M. (2000). “Educational Choice, Families and Young People's Earnings.” Journal of Human Resources. Vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 143–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ermisch, J., and M. Francesconi (2001a). The Effects of Parents' Employment on Children's Lives. London: Family Policy Study Centre for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Ermisch, J., and Francesconi, M. (2001b). “Family Structure and Children's Achievements.” Journal of Population Economics. Vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 249–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ermisch, J., and M. Francesconi (2002). “Intergenerational Social Mobility and Assortative Mating in Britain.” ISER Working Paper No. 2002-06. University of Essex, March
Galton, Francis (1886). “Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature.” Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 15, pp. 246–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsberg, M. (1929). “Interchange between Social Classes.” Economic Journal. Vol. 29, pp. 555–65Google Scholar
Glass, D. V., editor (1954). Social Mobility in Britain. London: Routledge
Goldthorpe, John H. (1980). Social Mobility and Class Structure in Modern Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Goldthorpe, John H., and K. Hope (1974). The Social Grading of Occupations: A New Approach and Scale. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Griliches, Zvi (1976). “Wages of Very Young Men.” Journal of Political Economy. Vol 84, no. 4, pt. 2, pp. S69–S85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halsey, A. H., A. F. Heath, and J. M. Ridge (1980). Origins and Destinations. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Haveman, R., and Wolfe, B. (1995). “The Determinants of Children's Attainments: A Review of Methods and Findings.” Journal of Economic Literature. Vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 1829–78Google Scholar
Heath, A. (1981). Social Mobility. London: Fontana Paperbacks
Heath, A., and C. Payne (2000). “Social Mobility.” In A. H. Halsey and J. Webb (editors). Twentieth-Century British Social Trends. London: Macmillan
Layard, Richard, Stephen Nickell, and Richard Jackman (1991). Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Loury, G. C. (1981). “Intergenerational Transfers and the Distribution of Earnings.” Econometrica. Vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 843–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, Susan E., and Leonard M. Lopoo (2001). “Has the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status Changed?” Harris School Working Paper No. 01-16. University of Chicago
Mazumder, Bhashkar (2001). “Earnings Mobility in the US: A New Look at Intergenerational Inequality.” University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Economics, Working Paper No. 34
McLanahan, Sara S., and G. Sandefur (1994). Growing Up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Micklewright, J., Pearson, M., and Smith, S. (1989). “Has Britain an Early School Leaving Problem?Fiscal Studies. Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mincer, J. (1962). “On the Job Training Costs Returns and Some Implications.” Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 70 (supplement), pp. S50–S79CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulligan, Casey B. (1997). Parental Priorities and Economic Inequality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Nickell, Stephen (1982). “The Determinants of Occupational Success in Britain.” Review of Economic Studies. Vol. 49, pp. 43–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phelps Brown, H. (1977). The Inequality of Pay. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Schultz, T. W. (1967). The Economic Value of Education. New York: Columbia University Press
Solon, Gary R. (1989). “Biases in the Estimation of Intergenerational Earnings Correlations.” Review of Economics and Statistics. Vol. 71, pp. 172–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solon, Gary R. (1992). “Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States.” American Economic Review. Vol. 82, no. 3, pp. 393–408Google Scholar
Solon, Gary R. (1999). “Intergenerational Mobility in the Labor Market.” In Orley C. Ashenfelter and David Card (editors). Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 3A. Amsterdam: North-HollandCrossRef
Stokey. N. L. (1996). “Shirtsleeves to Shirtsleeves: The Economics of Social Mobility.” Nancy L. Schwartz Lecture. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University
Weiss, Y. (1986). “The Determinants of Life Cycle Earnings: A Survey.” In O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard (editors). Handbook of Labor Economics. Vol. 1. Amsterdam: North-HollandCrossRef
Zimmerman, David J. (1992). “Regression Toward Mediocrity in Economic Stature.” American Economic Review. Vol. 82, no. 3, pp. 409–29Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×