Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article

While social mobility in advanced economies has received extensive scholarly attention, crucial knowledge gaps remain about the patterns and determinants of income, educational, and occupational mobility in developing countries. Focusing on intergenerational mobility, we find that estimates often di...

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Main Authors:	Iversen, Vegard, Krishna, Anirudh, Sen, Kunal
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2021
Subjects:	INEQUALITY INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY SOCIAL MOBILITY DOWNWARD MOBILITY METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGE HUMAN CAPITAL LABOR SKILLS LABOR PRODUCTIVITY EMPLOYMENT
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35084

id	okr-10986-35084
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-350842021-04-23T14:02:15Z Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article Iversen, Vegard Krishna, Anirudh Sen, Kunal INEQUALITY INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY SOCIAL MOBILITY DOWNWARD MOBILITY METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGE HUMAN CAPITAL LABOR SKILLS LABOR PRODUCTIVITY EMPLOYMENT While social mobility in advanced economies has received extensive scholarly attention, crucial knowledge gaps remain about the patterns and determinants of income, educational, and occupational mobility in developing countries. Focusing on intergenerational mobility, we find that estimates often differ greatly for the same country, depending on the concept and measure of mobility used, on variable constructions and on the data set utilized. There is also wide variation in mobility across regions and social groups. We discuss data and income and other variable measurement challenges when agriculture and the informal sector absorb most of the workforce, and illustrate why occupational classifications and widely used mobility measures may perform less well in such settings. Factors beyond those featuring in the literature on advanced economies are plausible determinants of social mobility, particularly of what we call moderate and large ascents (and descents), in developing country contexts. We highlight the lack of in-depth understanding of the multiple and often localized hurdles to such more pronounced progress. Similar knowledge gaps exist for large descents, which give rise to particularly profound concerns in low-income settings. We report and touch on the implications of suggestive findings of a disconnect between educational and occupational mobility. Innovative research requires critical engagement with theory and with methodology, identification, and data challenges that may overlap or deviate notably from those encountered in advanced economies. 2021-02-01T22:09:59Z 2021-02-01T22:09:59Z 2019-08 Journal Article World Bank Research Observer 1564-6971 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35084 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Journal Article
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	INEQUALITY INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY SOCIAL MOBILITY DOWNWARD MOBILITY METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGE HUMAN CAPITAL LABOR SKILLS LABOR PRODUCTIVITY EMPLOYMENT
spellingShingle	INEQUALITY INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY SOCIAL MOBILITY DOWNWARD MOBILITY METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGE HUMAN CAPITAL LABOR SKILLS LABOR PRODUCTIVITY EMPLOYMENT Iversen, Vegard Krishna, Anirudh Sen, Kunal Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article
description	While social mobility in advanced economies has received extensive scholarly attention, crucial knowledge gaps remain about the patterns and determinants of income, educational, and occupational mobility in developing countries. Focusing on intergenerational mobility, we find that estimates often differ greatly for the same country, depending on the concept and measure of mobility used, on variable constructions and on the data set utilized. There is also wide variation in mobility across regions and social groups. We discuss data and income and other variable measurement challenges when agriculture and the informal sector absorb most of the workforce, and illustrate why occupational classifications and widely used mobility measures may perform less well in such settings. Factors beyond those featuring in the literature on advanced economies are plausible determinants of social mobility, particularly of what we call moderate and large ascents (and descents), in developing country contexts. We highlight the lack of in-depth understanding of the multiple and often localized hurdles to such more pronounced progress. Similar knowledge gaps exist for large descents, which give rise to particularly profound concerns in low-income settings. We report and touch on the implications of suggestive findings of a disconnect between educational and occupational mobility. Innovative research requires critical engagement with theory and with methodology, identification, and data challenges that may overlap or deviate notably from those encountered in advanced economies.
format	Journal Article
author	Iversen, Vegard Krishna, Anirudh Sen, Kunal
author_facet	Iversen, Vegard Krishna, Anirudh Sen, Kunal
author_sort	Iversen, Vegard
title	Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article
title_short	Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article
title_full	Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article
title_fullStr	Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article
title_full_unstemmed	Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article
title_sort	beyond poverty escapes—social mobility in developing countries : a review article
publisher	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
publishDate	2021
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35084
_version_	1764482291749355520

Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries : A Review Article

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