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Improving early child development outcomes in low-income settingsImproving early child development outcomes in low-income settings requires affordable, sustainable, and easily scalable solutions. The “First Steps”...
This project looks at what we know about social mobility in developing countries, and works to conceptualize and innovate methodology to further research on this topic.
Social mobility — defined as the ability to move from a lower to a higher level of education or occupational status, or from a lower to a higher social class or income-group — is the hope of economic development and the mantra of a good society.
Concerns about rising inequality have engendered a renewed interest in social mobility, especially in the developing world, as reflected in recent authoritative reports from the OECD and the World Bank. However, efforts to construct the databases in developing countries and meet the standards required for conventional analyses of social mobility are, still, at a preliminary stage and need to be complemented by innovative conceptual and methodological advances to convincingly study a phenomenon of great contemporary importance.
Key questions
- How does one assess the extent of social mobility in a given development context when the datasets required by conventional measurement techniques are limited in availability?
- What do we know about the patterns of social mobility across the developing world? Which countries have done particularly well in social mobility and which countries have lagged behind?
- How does one reliably identify the drivers and the inhibitors of social mobility in particular developing country contexts?
- How does one acquire the knowledge required to design interventions that are likely to raise social mobility, either by increasing upward mobility or by lowering downward mobility?
Watch this space
All papers, data, opinion pieces and opportunities to engage relating to this project will be available on this web page. An important initial outcome of the project will be a state-of-the-art monograph on concepts, measures and determinants of social mobility in developing countries, with contributions from leading scholars in economics, anthropology, sociology, economic history and political science.
UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
The project centrally addresses SDG 10, especially how to ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome.
TEAM
Focal point: Kunal Sen and Maria Lo Bue
External focal points: Anirudh Krishna and Vegard Iversen
Project support: Tram Nguyen
Communications: Timothy Shipp
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Working Paper
Degrees of disadvantageThis study is positioned in two strands of literature—intersectionality and social mobility. It is the first to measure (dis)advantage at the individual level as an outcome of the intersectionality of identities and parental circumstances. By linking...
Working Paper
Barriers or catalysts? Traditional institutions and social mobility in rural IndiaWe examine how village-level social group dominance affects the educational and occupational mobility of minority and other social groups in rural India across multiple generations. We distinguish between upper caste and own-group dominance and...
Journal Article
Improving parenting practices for early child developmentThis study investigates the short- and medium-term impact of a randomized group-based early child development program targeting parents of children aged 6–24 months in a poor, rural district of Rwanda. This low-intensity, short-duration, and low-cost...
Journal Article
Multigenerational mobility among males in IndiaMost studies of intergenerational mobility focus on adjacent generations, and there is limited knowledge about multigenerational mobility—status transmission across three generations. We examine multigenerational educational and occupational mobility...
Blog
Social mobility among disadvantaged groups in IndiaIn recent decades, India has experienced rapid economic growth alongside radical affirmative action programs enacted since independence. This column...
Working Paper
Foreign aid and intergenerational mobility in AfricaWhile there is extensive literature examining the growth and development effects of foreign aid, very little attention has been paid to its potential impact on social mobility. Thus, this paper provides the first empirical evidence on the effects of...
Displaying 16 of 93 results
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Theme: 2019-23, Transforming societies