The intergenerational transmission of income mobility between mothers and their young adult daughters: The mediating role of their daughters' educational attainment

This study examines whether the daughters' educational attainment mediates the intergenerational transmission of economic mobility between mothers and their young adult daughters. To create mother–daughter dyads, two data sets were combined: The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 for Children and Young Adults (NLSY79 CY). A total of 2,456 dyads were included for analysis. We used a mediation model to explore the relationship between mothers' income and their young adult daughters' income. Mothers' income was associated with their young adult daughters' educational attainment and income. The mediation model indicated partial mediation of the relationship between mothers' income and their young adult daughters' income via their young adult daughters' educational attainment. Addressing issues of income inequality among mothers may serve as a buffer against the low upward mobility across generations for their young adult daughters raised by low-income mothers. It is imperative to provide programs and financial assistance for mothers to bolster their income and thereby their daughters' educational attainment and income in young adulthood and therefore improve economic mobility from mothers to daughters.     

Subjective Social Status,Income Inequality and Subjective Perceptions of Mobility (2003-2013)*

Using a sample of over 90,000 urban and rura1 residents from the Chinese Social Survey (CSS) and China Genera1 Social Survey (CGSS) from 2003 to 2013, we analyzed the structural features and influencing factors underlying subjective social status in China. Our findings indicate that over these years, such identification has consistently assumed the shape of a bowling pin: those who “identify with a low social status” account for more than half of respondents, a much higher proportion than in most countries. At the individual level, the net effect on subjective social status of such objective indicators as education, income and occupation has been relatively small, and lessened over the ten years. The correlation between subjective perceptions of mobility and subjective social status is quite strong, but the upward impetus provided by perceptions of upward mobility weakened over the period. At the macro-level, the tempo of economic growth failed to raise the level of class identification, and income inequality had a markedly negative effect. Our research findings further demonstrate that curbing the income gap and increasing opportunities for mobility are important for raising the level of class identification during the transition period.     

收入不平等对中国居民幸福感的影响及其机制研究

本文立足于社会规范视角,以中国综合社会调查(CGSS)数据为基础,考察与分析区域层次的收入不平等对居民幸福感的影响及其机制。结果显示,当前中国的收入不平等会损害个人对幸福的积极体验。与高收入群体相比,低收入群体更容易产生这种负向感知。相对剥夺和关系信任构成的社会心理过程是影响收入不平等与个人幸福感关系的重要机制,资源供给机制未获调查数据的支持。在此基础上,本文认为,国民幸福感的高低并非取决于收入不平等本身,而是分配体系构建的合理性。所以,建立具有公平正义价值导向的收入分配体系是提升中国居民幸福感的发展方向。     

相对收入与主观幸福感:检验农民工的多重参照群体

尽管社会经济地位低于城市居民，农民工的主观幸福感却更高。这种客观经济地位与主观福利评判的不一致有两种解释：同质性参照群体假设和向上流动期望假设，暗示农民工在进行社会比较时会选择不同的参照群体。基于一项大规模全国代表性的调查数据，本文通过建构农民工的多个参照群体检验了上述假设，结果验证了同质性参照群体假设：控制个人收入后，同省其他农民的平均收入越高，农民工的生活满意度越低；加入农民的平均收入后，农民工相对于城市就业居民的生活满意度优势消失，甚至转为劣势。向上流动期望假设未获支持：城市就业居民的平均收入对农民工的生活满意度没有显著影响，而且这样的“零效应”可能并非由于向上流动期望的压抑影响造成的。     

Intergenerational income mobility and inequality in South Korea

Using data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), recent trends in intergenerational income mobility were explored, examining the relationship between income mobility and income inequality in South Korea. The study found that the intergenerational elasticity of income is about 0.2 and there is no clear‐cut trend in intergenerational income mobility. In addition, this study showed that there is no systematic relation between rising income inequality and intergenerational income mobility in contemporary Korea. Overall, the results indicate that intergenerational income mobility is irresponsive to the income inequality the respondents experienced growing up. It is assumed that education and welfare transfer programs might offset the consequences of income inequality by leading to upward mobility for children from low‐income households.     

Beyond Piketty: A new perspective on poverty and inequality in India

The socio-economic literature has focused much on how overall inequality in income distribution (frequently measured by the Gini coefficient) undermines the “trickle down” effect. In other words, the higher the inequality in the income distribution, the lower is the growth elasticity of poverty. However, with the publication of Piketty’s magnum opus (2014), and a subsequent study by Chancel and Piketty (2017) of evolution of income inequality in India since 1922, the focus has shifted to the income disparity between the richest 1% (or 0.01%) and the bottom 50%. Their central argument is that the rapid growth of income at the top end of millionaires and billionaires is a by-product of growth. The present study extends this argument by linking it to poverty indices in India. Based on the India Human Development Survey 2005–12 – a nationwide panel survey-we examine the links between poverty and income inequality, especially in the upper tail relative to the bottom 50%, state affluence (measured in per capita income) and their interaction or their joint effect. Another feature of our research is that we analyse their effects on the FGT class of poverty indices. The results are similar in as much as direction of association is concerned but the elasticities vary with the poverty index. The growth elasticities are negative and significant for all poverty indices. In all three cases, the disparity between the income share of the top 1% and share of the bottom 50% is associated with greater poverty. These elasticities are much higher than the (absolute) income elasticities except in the case of the poverty gap. The largest increase occurs in the poverty gap squared – a 1% greater income disparity is associated with a 1.24% higher value of this index. Thus the consequences of even a small increase in the income disparity are alarming for the poorest.     

Why Did Poverty Become Less Geographically Concentrated in the 1990s?*

Objective. After increasing sharply in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of high‐poverty neighborhoods in the United States unexpectedly and dramatically declined in the 1990s. This article examines the roles that residential and income mobility played in this decline. Methods. Using geocoded data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this study analyzes changes during the 1990s and early 2000s in: (1) patterns of residential mobility between high‐poverty and lower‐poverty neighborhoods; and (2) patterns of income mobility for residents who remained in high‐poverty neighborhoods. Results. Both patterns of residential and income mobility changed in the 1990s and early 2000s. While patterns of residential migration to high‐poverty neighborhoods were largely unchanged over this period, patterns of residential migration from high‐poverty neighborhoods changed significantly, with poor individuals—especially poor blacks—becoming more likely to relocate from high‐poverty to lower‐poverty neighborhoods. Patterns of income mobility for residents who remained in high‐poverty neighborhoods also changed significantly, with nonpoor residents becoming less likely to become poor and poor residents becoming more likely to exit poverty. Conclusion. Poverty rates in high‐poverty neighborhoods fell primarily because of the net upward income mobility of residents who remained in these neighborhoods.     

Age Differences in Perceptions of Rich and Poor People: Is It Skill or Luck?

To gain new perspective on the development of understandings and perceptions of income inequality, this study compared the reactions of six, eight, and 10‐year‐olds to a rich man and a poor man and the winners and losers of a contest of skill and a game of chance. Age differences in attributions for outcomes reflected a strengthening with age of the skill–luck distinction and of equity thinking about wealth. Although men with good outcomes were generally perceived more positively than men with bad outcomes, and likeability was affected only by outcome, 10‐year‐olds differentiated most sharply among different types of ‘winners’ or ‘losers’, viewing the rich and poor men as more like the winner and loser of a contest of skill than like the winner and loser of a game of chance. Overall, the findings suggest that differential evaluation of rich and poor people may begin as affective tagging based on good or bad life outcomes and later be associated with justifications grounded in an equity perspective on income inequality that emphasizes the role of personal qualities such as ability in wealth accumulation.     

Poverty, Welfare, and Patriarchy: How Macro-Level Changes in Social Policy Can Help Low-Income Women

A critical review of the current status of low-income women reveals how patriarchy, violence, and discrimination mitigates against their employment and contributes to their poverty. Myths that fuel prejudice against the poor have led to public policy and welfare legislation based on individualistic rather than structural assumptions about the causes of poverty. Research on the effects of welfare reform reinforces the conclusion that changes in social welfare and policy are necessary for income parity and improvement in the employment opportunities, access, and status of low-income women. A human-capital model and recommendations for macro-level changes in public policy and programming that address the systemic causes of women's poverty are presented.     

拼爹重要,还是拼搏重要？当下中国公众对绩效分配原则的感知

在现代社会,个人根据其能力、素质和专业技能等资质获得职业和社会地位的绩效主义原则已经被广泛认为是符合经济公平正义的主要分配原则。然而,鲜有研究关注公众是如何看待绩效分配原则的。本文利用中国家庭追踪调查2010年基线调查数据（CFPS2010）,对公众关于绩效分配原则的认同状况进行了初步探讨。研究发现：第一,社会经济地位越高的成员越认同绩效分配原则;第二,成长于改革开放时期的年轻人更加认同绩效分配原则;第三,地区收入不平等状况在一定程度上降低了社会地位较低的群体对绩效分配原则的认同感。本文的发现在一定程度上表明,当前中国公众之所以对收入不平等表现出较为宽容的态度,主要是因为大部分公众相信教育和个人努力是取得社会成就的重要影响因素,但应注意,公众对绩效分配原则的认同感与其客观社会经济地位存在密切关系。     

Income inequality and health outcomes in the United States: An empirical analysis

A growing body of research suggests a relationship between health and income inequality. This study specifically analyzes the correlation between income inequality, measured by state-level Gini coefficients from the American Community Survey (ACS), and individual behavioral, physical, and mental health outcomes from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for 2006 through 2014. After controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health insurance status, year trends, and state fixed effects, income inequality was found to have significant relationships with behavioral, physical, and mental health outcomes, including heavy drinking, obesity, exercise, diabetes, heart attack, heart disease, physical and mental health problems, and depression, and often the impact on low-income individuals is slightly smaller than on the high-income group. The research suggests that economic policies to address the rising income inequality in the United States might serve to also address some of our nation’s most troubling health statistics.     

Immigrants' Perceptions of Housing Discrimination in Toronto: The Housing New Canadians Project

The Housing New Canadians project investigated recent immigrants' perceptions of discrimination in finding rental housing since arriving in Toronto, Canada. Respondents from three immigrant communities —Jamaicans, Poles, and Somalis ά—indicated how much housing discrimination they had personally experienced and how much discrimination they perceived to have been directed toward their group. They also rated how much each of several factors, including race, income level, source of income, immigrant status, language, ethnic or national background, religion, and family size, contributed to each type of perceived discrimination. Jamaican and Somali immigrants perceived greater personal and group discrimination and also showed a greater discrepancy between personal and group discrimination than did Polish immigrants. Implications are discussed.     

教育扩招促进了代际流动?

本文基于中国综合社会调查的数据,以改革开放后参加工作的群体为研究对象,实证分析了中国高等教育扩招对代际流动的影响。研究发现,没有充足证据证明教育扩招促进了代际流动。一方面,尽管教育在扩张前后始终是决定个人社会经济地位高低的最重要因素,但教育扩招没有显著改善教育机会不均等问题,从而也无法减弱家庭背景以教育为中介对子女初职社会经济地位的间接影响,带来代际流动的改善。另一方面,教育扩招的结构化效应不显著,大学毕业生面临的劳动力市场并非完全遵循绩效原则,因此,即便教育扩招提高了他们在社会总人口中的相对比例,也无法带来社会整体代际流动的改善。因此,发挥教育扩招促进代际流动的功能,不仅要强调教育机会的分配公平问题,同时也要努力完善劳动力市场建设,促进就业机会均等。     

收入差距、不平等感知与公众容忍度

本文辨析和检验了收入不平等的两种表现形式及其对公众容忍度的影响效应。研究结果显示，客观收入差距对公众容忍度并无直接影响，而感知的收入差距越大，对不平等的厌恶倾向越明显。但客观差距大并不意味着个体感知到的差距大，感知偏差及情境分割效应的存在，区县而非省级、时下而非过往的收入差距状况更易为个体所捕捉和感知，进而对其容忍度产生间接影响，且这种情境传导效应及对客观差距的感知程度在不同群体间有明显差异。这一结果为我们理解过大收入差距与较高容忍度共存的反差现象提供了基于分配结构异质性的观察视角和情境反应在地化的经验解释。     

Inequality, income, and poverty: comparative global evidence

Objectives. The study seeks to provide comparative global evidence on the role of income inequality, relative to income growth, in poverty reduction.Methods. An analysis-of-covariance model is estimated using a large global sample of 1980–2004 unbalanced panel data, with the headcount measure of poverty as the dependent variable, and the Gini coefficient and PPP-adjusted mean income as explanatory variables. Both random-effects and fixed-effects methods are employed in the estimation.Results. The responsiveness of poverty to income is a decreasing function of inequality, and the inequality elasticity of poverty is actually larger than the income elasticity of poverty. Furthermore, there is a large variation across regions (and countries) in the relative effects of inequality on poverty.Conclusion. Income distribution plays a more important role than might be traditionally acknowledged in poverty reduction, though this importance varies widely across regions and countries.     

Process over outcome: How perceptions of procedural fairness influence conservative support for redistributive taxes

Though majorities of Americans express support for redistributive tax policies as a cure for income inequality in the United States, this general support tends to dissipate when the public evaluates their support for specific proposals. The dominant explanations emphasize elite behavior and the disconnect between American values and political representation. An alternative view is that this counter-intuitive finding is entirely consistent with individual values. Some people place higher priority on policy processes than policy outcomes. This paper demonstrates that conservatives think about redistributive tax policy differently than liberals. Conservative support (opposition) for redistributive taxes is based on evaluations of the fairness of processes of government that lead to economic inequality. When conservatives believe that these processes are not fair, they are very supportive of wealth redistribution as a cure for economic inequality, whereas liberal support for wealth redistribution is more outcome-dependent.     

文化资本与地位获得对浙江某市私营企业主子女上向流动的个案分析

本文通过个案,分析探索转型期的私营企业主是如何看待“向上流动”的。被访的私营企业主依据文化资本把自己归入社会中下层,他们期望并力图使子代通过教育进入体制,从而实现向上流动。而他们的子代在进入体制失败后无奈地“子承父业”,没有实现他们所认同的向上流动。文中重点分析了文化资本在私营企业主自我定位和其子代谋求向上流动过程中的影响。正是这些源于制度与文化的影响使私营企业主认同积累文化资本才是实现向上流动的唯一途径。     

Measuring Third World Poverty by the International Poverty Line: The Case of Reform China*

This article selects a fast growing economy, China, under Deng Xiao-ping's economic reforms, as a case example for exploring the use of the median income-linked international poverty line in measuring third world poverty. Those third world countries which have a fast growing economy have the prospect of increased income inequality. Henceforth, the widening income inequality justifies a comparable poverty measurement which takes into account the relation between economic affluence and income distribution.     

Optimism in the Face of Despair: Black‐White Differences in Beliefs About School as a Means for Upward Social Mobility*

Objective. This study aims to provide a better understanding of how beliefs about the system of social mobility affect students' schooling outcomes. Previous studies reach conflicting conclusions because they conflate two forms of beliefs about social mobility (i.e., perceived value of school and perceived barriers despite schooling). Methods. The Maryland Adolescence Development In Context Study (MADICS) is used to examine black‐white differences in beliefs about the value of school and barriers to upward mobility despite schooling and how these beliefs predict academic achievement and educational attainment. Results. The analyses show that relative to whites, blacks hold stronger beliefs in both the value of school and barriers to social mobility, and have greater affective attitudes toward schooling. However, belief in barriers to social mobility is not consequential for academic outcomes. Conclusions. Beliefs about upward mobility are mechanisms by which the opportunity structure influences individuals' schooling behaviors and making clear distinctions between various beliefs about the system of social mobility can refine the understanding of this link. This study suggests that individuals make nuanced distinctions about the role of schooling for upward mobility, each with separate effects on academic outcomes.     

The Significance of Poverty Definition to Australians

The absolute, arbitrary, single-dimensional definition of poverty used by The Australian Government's Commission of Inquiry Into Poverty in its Interim Report of March, 1974, is inconsistent with a commitment to bring about a change in the structure of Australian society and to correct the excessive degree of economic inequality. Because of the significance of the conceptualization of poverty to the well-being of the majority of Australians, the commission is urged to perceive the problem of poverty as a problem of inequality and to apply a relative poverty line to the income data in their first main report.