Abilities and Mobility

Gøsta Esping-Andersen

מרצה בנושא

'Abilities and Mobility'

יום שלישי ה- 9/1/2018 בשעות 17:30-19:30

באוניברסיטת תל-אביב, בניין נפתלי 

​​Abilities and Mobility

Exploiting the recent PIACC data, we examine both upward and downward social mobility within 21 advanced nations.

Our aim is to identify the relative influence of social origins versus individual cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

We pay particular attention to the possibility of skills compensation— social skills may compensate for weak cognitive abilities, or vice-versa. This is, as far as we know, the first time mobility research has examined such kinds of skills-compensatory behavior. In line with previous research we, too, uncover a significantly more egalitarian mobility pattern in the Nordic countries.

This however obtains also for Canada and the Netherlands.

As a novel contribution to the literature, our analyses suggest that skills compensation is particularly prominent in Scandinavia, protecting high-SES sons from the risk of downward social mobility.