Xi Song on Intergenerational Mobility at Home and Abroad

The Inequality Podcast

Steven talks to Xi Song, associate professor of Sociology and Demography at the University of Pennsylvania, about trends in intergenerational mobility across time and space. Dr. Song details how intergenerational mobility declined in the United States after World War II but then dives further to explore the diversity of experiences for different groups. She discusses the trends in mobility as broken down by race, immigration status, and gender. Steven and Dr. Song even outline the different ways that mobility can be defined and measured, from occupational mobility to exchange and structural mobility. Dr. Song then details trends in mobility in different countries, particularly in China, as well as the potential advantages of having centuries of genealogical data at your disposal. The Inequality in Perspective segment explores China’s One Child Policy and its possible impacts on intergenerational mobility. Special thanks to Dr. Lixing Li, economics professor at Peking University and affiliate of the Stone Center, for his contributions to the segment.

LINKS:

“The One-Child Policy Amplifies Economic Inequality Across Generations in China” (IZA Institute of Labor Economics): https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13617/the-one-child-policy-amplifies-economic-inequality-across-generations-in-china#:~:text=13617%3A%20The%20One%2DChild%20Policy,Inequality%20across%20Generations%20in%20China&text=This%20study%20finds%20that%20China's,since%20its%20introduction%20in%201979

“A Grand Socioeconomic Reshuffle: The One-Child Policy and Intergenerational Mobility in China” (NBER): https://conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f176999.pdf

“China’s Aging Population is a Major Threat to its Future” (TIME): https://time.com/5523805/china-aging-population-working-age/