Intragenerational Social Mobility and Happiness in China: Does Upward Mobility Make People Happier?

• In Event: 589 - Regular Session. The Experience of Social Mobility

Abstract

To date, no study has satisfactorily addressed the relationship between intragenerational social mobility and happiness in China. The present analysis tests several hypotheses and investigates the effect of intragenerational social mobility on happiness, with data from the China General Social Survey 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008. Intragenerational mobility is found to have a notable effect on happiness. Downward mobility lowers individuals’ happiness levels. But I find no support for the traditional hypothesis that social mobility produces higher levels of dissatisfaction, net of prior and current class and controls. There are also gender differences between mobility patterns and happiness. After taking intragenerational mobility into consideration, I find that mobile females tend to resemble those in their prior class status than current social status on happiness while mobile males tend to resemble those in their current class.

Authors

• Xiaolu Zang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

• Nan Dirk De Graaf, Oxford University