Huffington Post:
Grand illusion: mobility, inequality, and the American Dream
2 October 2012
Studies of social mobility as far back as the 1950s and 1960s showed that rates of movement in the United States were generally comparable to other developed countries. This finding itself challenged the longstanding image of America as exceptionally open, but it is a far cry from today, when the United States rates at or near the bottom in comparative studies of social mobility. To take just two examples, a study by Jo Blanden and colleagues at the London School of Economics found that a father's income was a better predictor of a son's income in the United States than in seven other countries, including Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
This article was published in the Huffington Post on October 2, 2012Related publications
- A continuing downward trend in intergenerational mobility? by Jo Blanden and Stephen Machin in CentrePiece 13(2) Autumn 2008.
- Sutton Trust: Project Summary Report - Recent Changes in Intergenerational Mobility in the UK: A Summary of Findings
- Main Report - Recent Changes in Intergenerational Mobility in Britain by Jo Blanden and Stephen Machin, December 2007
- Report for the Sutton Trust, Intergenerational Mobility in Europe and North America by Jo Blanden, Paul Gregg and Stephen Machin.
- Social Mobility in Britain: Low and Falling by Jo Blanden, Paul Gregg and Stephen Machin. Article appeared in CentrePiece, Vol.10, Issue 1 Spring 2005
Related Links
Jo Blanden webpage
Stephen Machin webpage
Paul Gregg webpage