TY - JOUR
T1 - Trends in social mobility in postrevolution China
AU - Xie, Yu
AU - Dong, Hao
AU - Zhou, Xiang
AU - Song, Xi
N1 - Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The research was partially supported by the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China at Princeton University and the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. Y.X.’s work was also supported by the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies at Sciences Po, where he was a visiting scholar in 2019. The ideas expressed herein are those of the authors.
Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The research was partially supported by the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China at Princeton University and the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. Y.X.?s work was also supported by the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies at Sciences Po, where he was a visiting scholar in 2019. The ideas expressed herein are those of the authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/2/15
Y1 - 2022/2/15
N2 - In this paper, we study long-term trends in social mobility in the People’s Republic of China since its inception in 1949, with two operationalizations: 1) intergenerational occupational mobility and 2) intergenerational educational mobility. We draw on an accumulation of administrative and survey data and provide comparable estimates of these measures for birth cohorts born after 1945. To help interpret the results, we compare trends in China to those in the United States for the same birth cohorts. We find an increase in intergenerational occupational mobility in China due to its rapid industrialization in recent decades. Net of industrialization, however, intergenerational occupational mobility has been declining for recent cohorts. Intergenerational educational mobility in China shows a similar declining trend. In addition, mobility patterns have differed greatly by gender, with women in earlier cohorts and from a rural origin particularly disadvantaged. We attribute the general decline in social mobility to market forces that have taken hold since China’s economic reform that began in 1978. In contrast, social mobility by both measures has been relatively stable in the United States. However, while social mobility in China has trended downward, it is still higher than that in the United States, except for women’s educational mobility.
AB - In this paper, we study long-term trends in social mobility in the People’s Republic of China since its inception in 1949, with two operationalizations: 1) intergenerational occupational mobility and 2) intergenerational educational mobility. We draw on an accumulation of administrative and survey data and provide comparable estimates of these measures for birth cohorts born after 1945. To help interpret the results, we compare trends in China to those in the United States for the same birth cohorts. We find an increase in intergenerational occupational mobility in China due to its rapid industrialization in recent decades. Net of industrialization, however, intergenerational occupational mobility has been declining for recent cohorts. Intergenerational educational mobility in China shows a similar declining trend. In addition, mobility patterns have differed greatly by gender, with women in earlier cohorts and from a rural origin particularly disadvantaged. We attribute the general decline in social mobility to market forces that have taken hold since China’s economic reform that began in 1978. In contrast, social mobility by both measures has been relatively stable in the United States. However, while social mobility in China has trended downward, it is still higher than that in the United States, except for women’s educational mobility.
KW - China
KW - Education
KW - Occupation
KW - Social mobility
KW - Trends
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2117471119
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2117471119
M3 - Article
C2 - 35145032
AN - SCOPUS:85124447136
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 119
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 7
M1 - e2117471119
ER -