Trends in Intergenerational Social Mobility in China

This paper studies the intergenerational social mobility pattern in the People’s Republic of China over half six decades, based on an analysis of 5 cohorts (born between 1932 and 1988) from a series of national representative surveys conducted in 1996, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012,  respectively. In the context of rapid economic industrialization since 1949, the absolute mobility rates in China increased over time, but the level is much lower than other countries. The relative mobility patterns were largely stable for both men and women except for the youngest cohort. Education played an important role in intergenerational social reproduction: the effect of origin on educational attainment does not change over time, and but the effect of education on destination does. The household registration (hukou) system that the Chinese government installed in to curb the rural- urban migration in the course of socialist industrialization created a unique pattern of social mobility in China that deviates from core models of social mobility found in other countries. The market reform has altered the pattern of social mobility: the effect of origin on education increased and the market-oriented reform seems to enhance the inter-generational transmission.