Trends and structural decomposition of intergenerational mobility in Chinese education: Analysis based on birth cohorts

Junyan Dong, Ying Li and Hanjie Zhang

International Journal of Educational Development, 2025, vol. 118, issue C

Abstract: This paper empirically investigates the trend and structure of intergenerational mobility in education in China using six rounds of survey data from CGSS 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2021, which are carefully analyzed by birth year clusters. The results of the study show that: (1) in terms of relative mobility, intergenerational mobility of education in China has increased as a whole, with the sub-birth year cohorts showing a continuous increase in the 1950s cohort, a decrease in the 1960s, and then a continued increase in the 1980s; (2) the influence of parents on their offspring has found that mothers' education levels are more likely to promote intergenerational mobility of education relative to their fathers'; (3) in terms of absolute mobility, The problem of "depreciation of education" still exists, and after the Mosteller standardization method is used to eliminate the effect of educational inflation, it is found that the rate of inertia is the highest in the 1951–1955 interval, and then the rate of inertia decreases, and the intergenerational mobility of education increases; (4) heterogeneity analyses show that changes in mobility for men and women are not significantly different and have been steadily changing in the same trend, and that both urban and rural areas, as well as the East, Center, and West, show large differences in intergenerational mobility in the 1950s, with the gaps diminishing over time. The above results show that intergenerational mobility in education in China has not tended to stagnate or regress.

Keywords: Intergenerational mobility in education; Relative mobility; Absolute mobility; Mosteller standardisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:injoed:v:118:y:2025:i:c:s0738059325001956

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103397

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