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Social Mobility in EU Member States

There is a relationship between the social status of parents and of their children: higher-status parents more often have higher-status children than do underprivileged parents, though it is hard to measure the relationship systematically and to determine its strength. There are very many mechanisms that might explain why such a relationship would exist. The transmission of abilities and personality traits within the family, income-related inequalities in investment in education by families, direct transfers of wealth and social connections - all these might play a role. Inheritance of social status might show itself in income levels and in the jobs that people do. The relationship between the incomes of successive generations is difficult to measure because of lack of data. There are, however, data on the occupations of parents and their children and on education levels. The latter, in particular, is especially important, since educational attainment is a primary determinant of a person's life chances, in the sense that it tends to be the most important influence on the employment opportunities open to that person and, accordingly, on both the job that they are likely to be able to obtain and the income they are likely to earn.

The existence of such a relationship (and its strength) is of some importance, since it provides an indication of the extent of social mobility, of the chances of someone who does not have a privileged background advancing in society, as well as of the degree to which those who come from a privileged background are advantaged. It accordingly provides an insight into the factors underlying inequality and the extent to which it derives from the position into which a person is born, rather than from the skills, efforts and attributes of the person him/herself. Social mobility, therefore, is a key feature of a fair and just society, where there is genuine equality of opportunity, irrespective of background.

Indeed, most empirical educational research has used the effect of some measure of the social status or education level of parents on the educational achievement of their children as a proxy for equality of opportunity (Ammermüller, 2005; Bishop and Mane, 2004; Hanushek and Wössmann, 2005; Horn, 2009; Iannelli, 2002; Marks, 2005; OECD, 2005).  Equally, access to a high level of education for everyone on the same terms is a key feature of the European social model and is a major aim of social policy across the EU.

The issue examined here is the strength of the relationship between the education level (or another measure of social status) of parents and their children, and how this varies across the EU.

Summary of findings

Four different sets of data relating to the link between the education level of parents and their children are examined here; they differ according to their coverage of countries and the methods used to compile them.

Though there are some differences in what the data indicate, some common findings do emerge. The Nordic countries and the Netherlands tend to show the highest level of educational mobility, in the sense that there is less of a relationship between the education levels of parents and children. By contrast, the Southern EU Member States, together with many of the former communist Central and Eastern European countries (though not the Baltic States), show the lowest level of mobility, since parental education is a major determinant of the education level of the subsequent generation.

Educational mobility seems to have increased over time in most countries, specifically over the period between the 1960s and the 1990s, insofar as the effect of parental education levels on children seems to be smaller for those in the younger age groups than for those in the older ones. Occupational mobility between generations is more marked, though it seems to mirror that of education, in the sense that much the same countries display high and low rates of mobility.

 

 

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