The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in Europe

Abstract

How do opportunities for intergenerational mobility depend on the place where you live? We address this question using European Social Survey data, studying the association in occupational rank and social class between parents and children, and how it varies by region. Both ways of measuring occupational mobility produce similar results but there is a clear distinction between upward mobility, largely driven by structural change, and relative mobility which is thought to closer reflect (in)equality of opportunity. Capital regions are hubs of absolute upward, but not always relative, mobility. Absolute upward mobility is correlated with a range of human capital, labor market, demographic, and socio-spatial characteristics. By contrast, the only robust predictor of relative mobility is income differences between social classes. More inequality entails less mobility, and this relationship holds within countries.

Understanding Patterns and Trends in Income Mobility through Multiverse Analysis

“…Arguably, this research would benefit from tighter integration with literature on the sources of earnings inequality in the labor market. Work parallel to ours confirms the importance for mobility analyses of considering characteristics of labor markets (Deutscher and Mazumder forthcoming; Engzell and Wilmers 2023; Granström and Engzell 2023) and women’s earnings (Ahrsjö, Karadakic, and Rasmussen 2023; Brandén, Nybom, and Vosters 2023).…”