044 - Special Session. Is Social Mobility Declining?

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

There are growing concerns that social mobility may be declining as economic inequality increases and as deindustrialization and the Great Recession hollow out the middle class by reducing demand for skilled manufacturing jobs. As the number of skilled middle-class jobs decline, opportunities for upward mobility for those from low social origins may decline as well. Have these and other developments indeed led to a decline in social mobility? Or are the fears trumped up? A panel of distinguished sociologists and economists present the latest evidence.

Sub Unit

• Special Sessions

Session Organizer

• Yu Xie, University of Michigan

Presider

• Yu Xie, University of Michigan

Panelists

• Raj Chetty, Harvard University

• Joseph Ferrie, Northwestern University

• Pablo Andres Mitnik, Stanford University

• Bruce Western, Harvard University

• Yu Xie, University of Michigan