Social and economic mobility: are destinies diverging? Anna Ludwinek - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Social and economic mobility: are destinies diverging?

Anna Ludwinek

Research Manager

European Foundation For the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

LSE, June 14th, 2017

Economic – loss of human capital/skills, growth, inequalities Social – erosion and divergence of solidarity support for public institutions, cohesion Political –democracies work based on the consent of the governed, trust in institutions Moral – social justice/fairness Importance of perceptions (of lack of opportunities, lack of fairness)

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Why does social mobility matter?

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Social mobility engrained in American and European setting

The American Dream -

Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we're from or what we look like or who we love - Michelle Obama

Social foundations - ‘agreed upon the necessity to promote improvement of living and working conditions of labour so as to permit equalization of such conditions in an upward direction’ Treaty of Rome 1957

Absolute: Each generation in relation to generation before (% better off than parents at same age, overall rising of living standards) Relative: (chances of moving up or down) - Individual rank compared the rank of that individuals’ parents at same age Important difference also for policymaking

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Absolute or Relative social mobility?

Absolute mobility

• Society experienced large shifts in

its structure between generations, the extent of upward mobility increased and prevailed over downward mobility.

• As the society structure changed

(or modernised due to the disappearance of low-skilled menial jobs and growth in service- class and highly qualified jobs), the more the extent of absolute social mobility among men and women became similar. John F. Kennedy

Importance of relative mobility - convergence

• …calls for restoring the European “convergence machine”

thought completing the Economic and Monetary Union and developing a social dimension of the European Union.

European Union White Paper 2017

• “A Social Europe: a Union which, based on sustainable growth,

promotes economic and social progress as well as cohesion and convergence”. Rome Declaration, March 25h, 2017

• EC Reflection Paper on Social dimension of Europe – 2017 -

stating that ‘In a modern and cohesive society, everyone should be able to contribute fully and have access to new ‘ladders of opportunities at different stages of their life’

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Relative social mobility – Has convergence happened?

0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 < 1946 1946 -1964 1964 -1980s AT BE BG CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GR HU IE NL PL SE SI SK UK

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Country patterns

0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 < 1946 1946 -1964 1965 -1975

Invariable fluidity

HU IE UK 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 < 1946 1946 -1964 1965 -1975

Stabilizing fluidity

CZ DE ES PL 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 < 1946 1946 -1964 1965 -1975

Increasing fluidity

BE DK FI GR NL SK 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 < 1946 1946 -1964 1965 -1975

Decreasing fluidity

AT BG EE FR SE

Gender matters

• Men from Generation X

experience decrease in social mobility – UK, France, Sweden, Austria, Estonia and Bulgaria.

• Increased in Germany,

Spain but also in countries with higher levels of social mobility

0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 < 1946 1946 -1964 1965 -1975

UK

UK men UK women UK

• 1. Term (social mobility) rarely mentioned however widespread

concern about the impact of inequalities on future generation voiced in most countries

• 2. Fairness – security of pensions (IT), future of youth (GR, BG)
• 3. squeezed middle class - diminished role (HU, SI, NL, MT, LV)

– growing number of ‘losers’ – impact on the engagement

• 4. Concerns over social cohesion – increasing regional and

residential segregation (Nordic and CEE countries), implication

• n access to services – place matters
• 5. Diminishing role of education as a main tool to foster social

mobility – value of qualification, maintaining competitive edge

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Drivers of policy discourse – factors

Other factors – family, wealth

• Family
• Parenting skills
• Social capital
• Cognitive skills/educational

attainment

• Soft, social skills/access to

social networks

• Home environment

– Sticky top

• Wealth concertation

Source: 4th EQLS, Q7f and Q7g

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Importance of resilience

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0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Netherlands Denmark Sweden Finland Austria Slovakia Portugal Germany Poland Luxembourg Croatia Spain UK Ireland Belgium Estonia Malta Slovenia Czech… Hungary Italy Latvia Lithuania France Cyprus Romania Greece Bulgaria

I find it difficult to deal with important problems that come up in my life When things go wrong in my life, it generally takes me a long time to get back to normal life satisfaction 4th EQLS (2016) – preliminary data

Future work

• Wealth and intergenerational transmission
• f disadvantage across European countries
• Fairness and the future (role of perceptions)

Thank you alu@eurofound.europa.eu

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