Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries: A Review Article

Abstract

While social mobility in advanced economies has received extensive scholarly attention, crucial knowledge gaps remain about the patterns and determinants of income, educational, and occupational mobility in developing countries. Focusing on intergenerational mobility, we find that estimates often differ greatly for the same country, depending on the concept and measure of mobility used, on variable constructions and on the data set utilized. There is also wide variation in mobility across regions and social groups. We discuss data and income and other variable measurement challenges when agriculture and the informal sector absorb most of the workforce, and illustrate why occupational classifications and widely used mobility measures may perform less well in such settings. Factors beyond those featuring in the literature on advanced economies are plausible determinants of social mobility, particularly of what we call moderate and large ascents (and descents), in developing country contexts. We highlight the lack of in-depth understanding of the multiple and often localized hurdles to such more pronounced progress. Similar knowledge gaps exist for large descents, which give rise to particularly profound concerns in low-income settings. We report and touch on the implications of suggestive findings of a disconnect between educational and occupational mobility. Innovative research requires critical engagement with theory and with methodology, identification, and data challenges that may overlap or deviate notably from those encountered in advanced economies.

Multigenerational mobility in India

“…A large literature has examined the transmission of economic and social outcomes such as earnings, education, and occupation across generations (Black and Devereux 2010;Blanden 2013;Chetty et al 2014;Corak et al 2014;Erikson and Goldthorpe 1992). While much of the literature has focused on developed countries, an emerging literature has studied whether there is intergenerational mobility in earnings, education, and occupations for developing countries (see Iversen et al 2019 for a review). So far, the literature has focused on the association in socioeconomic status between adjacent generations (Solon 1999(Solon , 2004.…”

The Rural-Urban Divide and Intergenerational Educational Mobility in a Developing Country: Theory and Evidence from Indonesia

“…The literature on developing countries is limited, with increasing interest in the last few years (see Iversen et al (2019) and Emran and Shilpi (2019) for recent surveys). The required panel data on income are not available in most of the developing countries, and as a result, the focus of the literature has been on educational linkages across generations (see, 5 among others, Neidhofer et al (2018), Azam and Bhatt (2015), Emran and Shilpi (2015), Hertz et al (2008), Thomas (1996)).…”

Gender Bias and Intergenerational Educational Mobility: Theory and Evidence from China and India

“…Recent surveys of this literature include Iversen et al (2019), Behrman (2019), Torche (2019). For cross-country evidence, please see Hertz et al (2008), Narayan et al (2018) and Bhalotra and Rawlings (2013).…”