Social mobility over three generations: evidence from British cohort studies

We examine social mobility patterns over three generations of family members, using data collected in three British birth cohort studies. For both men and women, absolute mobility rates (i.e. total, upward, downward and outflow mobility rates) in the partial parents– children mobility tables vary substantially by grandparents’ social class. As regards relative mobility patterns, there is a statistically significant association between grandparents’ and grandchildren’s class positions, after parents’ social class has been taken into account. The net grandparents–grandchildren association can be summarised by a single uniform association parameter. Net of parents’ social class, the odds of grandchildren entering the professional–managerial class rather than the unskilled manual class are at least two and a half times better if the grandparents were themselves in professional–managerial rather than unskilled manual class positions. This grandparents’ effect on social mobility persists even when parents’ education, income and wealth are taken into account. ∗We thank Michael Biggs, John Ermisch, Jani Erola, David Firth, John Goldthorpe, Ashleigh Griffin, Pasi Moisio, Rebecca Sear and Louis-André Vallet for helpful advice and suggestions. Early versions of this paper were presented at the 2011 spring meeting of the ISA RC28 in Essex and at seminars at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. We thanks the audience of these meetings for their helpful comments.