Does social mobility affect the size of the socioeconomic mortality differential?: evidence from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study

The effect of social mobility on the socioeconomic differential in mortality is examined with data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study. The analyses involve 46 980 men aged 45–64 years in 1981. The mortality risk of the socially mobile is compared with the mortality risk of the socially stable after adjustment for their class of origin (their social class in 1971) and class of destination (their social class in 1981) separately. Among those in employment there is some evidence that movement out of their class of origin is in the direction predicted by the idea of health-related social mobility. This evidence, however, seems strongest for causes of death which are least likely to have been preceded by prolonged incapacity. Movement into the class of destination, however, shows the opposite relationship with mortality. Compared with the socially stable members of their class of destination, the upwardly mobile tend to have higher mortality and the downwardly mobile tend to have lower mortality. This relationship with the class of destination, it is suggested, may explain why socioeconomic mortality differentials do not widen with increasing age.     

Coordinate-free analysis of trends in British social mobility

This paper is intended to make a contribution to the ongoing debate about declining social mobility in Great Britain by analyzing mobility tables based on data from the 1991 British Household Panel Survey and the 2005 General Household Survey. The models proposed here generalize Hauser's levels models and allow for a semi-parametric analysis of change in social mobility. The cell frequencies are assumed to be equal to the product of three effects: the effect of the father's position for the given year, the effect of the son's position for the given year, and the mobility effect related to the difference between the father's and the son's positions. A generalization of the iterative proportional fitting procedure is proposed and applied to computing the maximum likelihood estimates of the cell frequencies. The standard errors of the estimated parameters are computed under the product-multinomial sampling assumption. The results indicate opposing trends of mobility between the two timepoints. Fewer steps up or down in the society became less likely, while more steps became somewhat more likely.     

2000－2005年：我国职业结构和社会阶层结构变迁

内容提要：本文利用2005年1%人口抽样调查数据,通过与2000年人口普查比较,分析了当前我国职业和社会阶层结构现状及变化趋势：职业结构高级化进程加快,但社会阶层结构仍处于工业化初期阶段,十大社会阶层呈现金字塔形状,中间阶层规模较小,农业劳动者仍占主体,区域间差异显著。建议适时进行有关政策和制度调整,推进职业结构现代化,协调区域发展,缩小阶层之间经济社会差距,促进社会阶层结构向现代化转变。     

Men matter more: the social class identity of married British women, 1985–1991

Summary.  We investigate the class identity of married women as it relates to their own and their husband's class position. Whereas previous workers have attempted to test whether identity depends solely on the husband's position, not at all on the husband's position or equally on the husband's and wife's position, leaving out all intermediate cases, we estimate new diagonal reference models that quantify the relative weight of each partner's class position on their own class identity. In previous literature, it was also argued that women who work full time should be more likely to adopt a sharing model than other women and in some cases these different types of women were compared. We move beyond this simple dichotomy and more systematically formulate hypotheses about the conditions under which women attach more or less weight to their own class position and less or more weight respectively to that of their husbands. To test these hypotheses, we consider models where the weights are allowed to depend on characteristics of each partner and the couple. Using the British Social Attitudes Survey data for 1985–1991, we find that, when the husband's commitment to the labour force exceeds that of the wife, the husband's weight exceeds the wife's weight but, when the wife's commitment exceeds that of the husband's, the weights are approximately equal. We also find (unexpectedly) that women who hold higher positions than their husbands attach more weight to their husband's position than to their own position.     

Inequality indices and the starshaped principle of transfers

The evaluation of income distributions is usually based on the Pigou-Dalton (PD) principle which says that a transfer from any people to people who have less decreases economic inequality, i.e., increases the social evaluation index. We introduce two weaker principles of transfers which refer to a parameter θ. With the new principles, only those PD transfers increase the social evaluation index which take from the class of incomes above θ and give to the class below θ. The relative positions of individuals remain unchanged, and either no individual may cross the line θ (principle of transfers about θ) or some may do who have been situated next to it (starshaped principle of transfers at θ). θ may be a given constant, a function of mean income, or a quantile of the income distribution. The classes of indices which are consistent with these transfers are completely characterized, and examples are given.     

中国收入流动性再探讨

 本文利用“中国营养健康调查”(1989-2006)数据,从不同角度测度了中国收入流动性,分析了其对社会福利的影响,并按不同收入阶层对收入流动性进行分解,最后考察了个体的教育特征对收入流动性的影响。研究发现,城市和农村的收入流动性都先上升后下降,在收入分配差距较大的背景下,收入流动性降低加固了现有收入分层,形成“穷者越穷、富者越富”的马太效应,收入流动性并未改善社会福利;低收入阶层对总体收入流动性贡献最大,但大都在中低收入阶层内部变动;同时,受教育程度较高的个体不易向下流动,城市个体尤为显著。因此,在制定收入分配、教育政策时对低收入群体进行扶持,将有利于促进合理的收入流动进而缩小收入分配差距。     

On square ordinal contingency tables: a comparison of social class and income mobility for the same individuals

Summary.  Square contingency tables with matching ordinal rows and columns arise in particular as empirical transition matrices and the paper considers these in the context of social class and income mobility tables. Such tables relate the socio-economic position of parents to the socio-economic position of their child in adulthood. The level of association between parental and child socio-economic position is taken as a measure of mobility. Several approaches to analysis are described and illustrated by UK data in which interest focuses on comparisons of social class and income mobility tables that are derived from the same individuals. Account is taken of the use of the same individuals in the two tables. Additionally comparisons over time are considered.     

Ghettos of the mind: the empirical behaviour of indices of segregation and diversity

Summary.  The effect of immigration on social cohesion is a political issue, expressed as a fear that racially skewed residential patterns represent ghettos which prevent integration. Residential patterns have been measured by indices of segregation. The range of indices is reviewed in the paper and measured empirically for England and Wales by using census data for 1991 and 2001, including a new index of migration dispersal. There has been an increase in residential mixing as a result of growing minority populations and their more even spread across localities. These two trends are identified by two commonly used indices of segregation which are moving in opposite directions for the most recent immigrant groups. The sensitivity of each index to modifiable area boundaries makes them unsuitable for evaluation of cities' relative performance. The residential patterns of cities after immigration are more clearly understood by using demographic measures of migration and age structure.     

Deprivation, ill-health and the ecological fallacy

The use of ecological studies in explaining the relationship between deprivation and ill-health is widespread in many health applications. However, inferences drawn from these studies about individuals are susceptible to serious bias known as the ecological fallacy. Our paper demonstrates the ecological fallacy effect in this context but also shows how it can be considerably reduced by taking into account different population structures at the aggregate level. Two regression analyses of limiting long-term illness are performed, one at the individual level and one at the electoral ward level, using the 1991 UK census sample of anonymized records and the small area statistics. The analyses compare several measures of deprivation including the standard Carstairs index, with the separate variables which make up the indices, to determine their effectiveness in explaining rates of illness. Two of the deprivation scores are constructed using latent variable modelling techniques which enable a score to be generated at the individual level as well as at the ward level. It is shown that, given the right choice of socioeconomic variables and taking into account the age structure of the population, it should be possible to construct a single aggregate deprivation index that will explain most of the variation in rates of illness across the study region.     

女性家庭地位越高就越幸福吗?

人们普遍认为,女性家庭地位越高就会越幸福。然而,本文使用中国家庭追踪调查数据,基于有序响应模型和条件混合过程法,研究发现女性拥有更多家庭事务决策权未必能改善其幸福感。分样本回归显示,对于受教育少以及受强外部传统文化规范约束的女性群体,家庭决策权对其幸福感的负向影响尤为显著。这一发现,对将来关于个体幸福感的研究具有重要启示,即只有把外部文化规范等社会背景考虑进来,家庭决策者身份的幸福效应方向才能最终确认。此外,本文关于传统文化规范力量 仍然主导着女性幸福感的发现,也为政府部门制定致力于赋权女性的政策提供了论证基点。     

Monitoring contemporary student flows and characteristics: secondary analyses using the Labour Force Survey and the General Household Survey

This paper examines trends in the participation in higher education by disadvantaged social groups over the recent period of higher education expansion and reform. It has been suggested that disadvantaged groups can recoup by participation at mature ages and this question is examined. The data sources used are the Labour Force Survey (1986–1995), which yielded 13384 students (6747 men and 6637 women) and the General Household Survey (1984–1992) which yielded 1936 students (982 men and 954 women). From a perspective of equal opportunities, the relative participation of young people from manual and non-manual origins does not appear to have changed over the period considered, but there is some evidence of increased relative participation by people from manual class origins as mature students. Mature students from such origins were older than those from non-manual class origins, as were mature women than mature men, with consequences for employability. From a perspective of lifelong learning, the recent expansion has been successful, with more entrants from the unemployed. Considerable percentages of women also enter from full-time housework, and increasing percentages from manual work. However, as in the past, many entrants had been successful in becoming employed before entry, some being seconded by employers. Despite these changes, the greatest absolute take-up has been from middle class youth. Early employment outcomes were examined and suggest some discrimination against mature students. It is possible that the increased cost of higher education, in the context of an expanded labour market of graduates, may deter some mature students.     

Gender and income inequality in the UK 1968–90: the feminization of earnings or of poverty?

This paper uses data from the Family Expenditure Survey for five selected years between 1968 and 1990 to examine trends in the income distribution in the UK, highlighting the role of women's labour force participation and earnings. The increased labour force participation of married women (especially mothers of young children in the 1980s) made a greater contribution to the decline of the 'traditional' male breadwinner family than the increased number of lone parents. The lower half of the distribution of weekly earnings became increasingly dominated by women. Though women's weekly earnings remained low relative to men's, the increase in their participation meant that, over the period, an increased share of family income came from women's labour market income: in 1990 nearly a quarter of the income of families with children came from women's earnings. Women's earnings were an important factor in keeping families out of poverty. There was no trend towards increasing feminization of poverty over the sample period. Adult women were somewhat more likely to be poor than adult men were, but female-headed families were very much more likely to be in poverty, and much more dependent on state benefits, than male-headed families were. Women's increased role in the labour market affected those in male-headed families more than those in female-headed families. Alongside a broad tendency for women's earnings to reduce poverty and inequality, there is evidence that the female population has become more economically polarized.     

Friendship ties and geographical mobility: evidence from Great Britain

Summary.  A common finding in analyses of geographic mobility is a strong association between past movement and current mobility. We argue that one of the driving forces behind this pattern is the strength of local social ties outside the household. We use data from the British Household Panel Survey on the location of the three closest friends and the frequency of meetings with them. We estimate the processes of friendship formation and residential mobility jointly, allowing for correlation between the two processes. Our results show that a larger number of close friends living nearby substantially reduces movement of 20 miles or more.     

Pathways between education and health: a causal modelling approach

Summary.  The association of poor education and poor health has been consistently observed in many studies and in various countries. Thus far, studies examining the mechanisms underlying this association have looked at only a limited set of potential pathways. This study simultaneously examines six distinctive pathways, which have been hypothesized to link education and health and found support from previous studies. A causal analysis of education and health was performed using structural equation models. Data were used from six phases of the National Child Development Study, which is based on following up an initial sample of 17416 children who were born in 1958. The association between education and health appears to be explained by a combination of mechanisms: adolescent health and adult health behaviours for men and women, adult social class among men and parental social class among women. We conclude that improvements in population educational attainment may not automatically lead to improvements in population health, and that health policies for improving health and reducing health inequalities need to target specific causal pathways.     

The social class of Catholics in Scotland

The social status of people brought up as Catholics in Scotland, as measured by their occupational class, is analysed by using cross-sectional survey data gathered in 1997. The main finding is that Catholics have probably risen in social status to a greater extent than non-Catholics. The experience of Scottish Catholics seems to be distinctive, because no such patterns are found for England, and indeed in this respect Scottish Catholics more closely resemble members of non-Christian religions in England than they do English Catholics. The most likely explanation is the particular role which state-funded Catholic schools have played in Scotland, especially the system of comprehensive secondary schools that was set up after 1965. However, the analysis is suggestive rather than definitive and needs to be replicated on cohort data with larger sample sizes.     

与收入相关的健康不平等扩大了吗

引致健康不平等原因在很大程度上可追溯到收入不平等。本文利用中国营养与健康调查数据,采用建立在追踪调查样本上的集中系数,对1990-2006年间与收入相关健康不平等进行了测度和分解。结果显示：（1）城市和农村都存在着亲富人的健康不平等且累积效应不断深化,初始收入不平等是健康不平等加剧的重要原因;（2）居民平均健康水平有所降低,穷人的健康变动度大于富人,农村的健康不平等大于城市;（3）农村收入不平等扩大带来了健康不平等上升,而城市相关医疗卫生服务水平的提高,使收入不平等扩大对健康不平等的负效应有所减弱。因此,提升公共服务均等化水平、缩小城乡健康差距,是缓解健康不平等的有效途径。     

中国农村居民的健康动态研究

 利用四轮中国健康与营养状况调查构成的面板数据（1997-2006）,本文研究了中国农村居民的健康动态决定过程及健康持续性。我们使用动态随机效应probit模型控制了个体的不可观测异质性。同时,为了避免状态依赖效应的估计偏差,本文分别采纳了Heckman(1981)和Wooldridge(2005)提出的估计方法来处理“初始条件问题”。结论表明：在控制了其他因素之后,状态依赖效应对中国农村居民健康状况具有显著的影响;此外,那些年龄较大、教育水平较低、收入水平较低的农村弱势群体陷入持续性健康问题的可能性更大。     

代际流动性对社会公平影响的实证研究

本文利用CHNS微观调研数据库,实证分析了中国代际收入弹性及其传递机制,以及收入、教育资源和社会阶层分布的不平等性。研究表明,我国收入差距经历了逐步扩大到趋于平稳的过程,而同期代际流动性则经历了先波动后提高的过程。人力资本投资和社会地位影响可以解释代际收入弹性的30%左右。教育公平为促进我国社会公平发挥了主要作用,随着机会公平性的不断改善,代际流动性也将不断提高,将进一步减小个体差异性,缩小收入差距,使中国社会走向机会公平、收入公平和社会公平。