Intra-generational and Intergenerational Social Mobility: Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

This study examines intra-generational and intergenerational mobility of employment and income in Vietnam during the 2004–2014 period. It finds there was high mobility across occupations but less mobility across wage-job employment and economic sectors. Upward labour mobility increased over time because of the increase in skilled occupations. The intergenerational elasticity of earnings is estimated at around 0.36. Education plays an important role in increasing intra-generational as well as intergenerational mobility. The earning intergenerational elasticity for children with less than primary education is rather high, at 0.51, while this intergenerational elasticity for those with a college or university degree is much lower at 0.17.

How High Can You Climb? Earnings Inequality and Intragenerational Earnings Mobility in a Developing Country: Evidence from Thai Tax Returns

“…Thailand's upward mobility is greater than that of China in the early 1990s (Khor and Pencavel 2006) and comparable to that of Vietnam from 2004 to 2014. (Nguyen and Nguyen 2020). It is, however, lower than all of the other evidence.…”

“…For example, Zeng and Zhu (2022) uses the China Household Finance Survey to focus on top earnings. It finds that earnings mobility above the 90th percentile exhibits the inverted U-shape over 2011-2017. Other examples include Khor and Pencavel (2006) for China, Martinez et al (2014) for the Philippines, and Nguyen and Nguyen (2020) for Vietnam.…”

The Short-Run Impact of Indonesia’s Large-Scale Social Restriction on Intra-Generational Household Economic Mobility

“…In contrast, households in the middle-income class are very vulnerable to falling into poverty. Similarly, Nguyen & Nguyen (2020) prove that education plays an important role in increasing the intra-generational and intergenerational mobility of households in Vietnam. Households with highly educated heads are more mobile than households with heads with lower educational attainment.…”

Intra-generational social mobility and mortality among older men in the Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project: A cohort study

“…Few studies have examined the relation between intra-generational social mobility and mortality where change in social position is considered within households or individuals ( Billingsley, 2012 , 2019 , 2020 ; Claussen, Smits, Naess, & Davey Smith, 2005 ; Ericsson, Pedersen, Johansson, Fors, & Dahl Aslan, 2019 ; Hart, Smith, & Blane, 1998 ; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2020 ; Pensola & Martikainen, 2003 ; Uggla & Billingsley, 2018 ). Most of these studies have been conducted in Europe or the United States and have evaluated social mobility based on a single indicator of socioeconomic conditions over time, mainly occupational position ( Billingsley, 2012 , 2019 , 2020 ; Hart et al, 1998 ; Uggla & Billingsley, 2018 ).…”

“…Several studies have investigated the risk of mortality across only two stages of the life-course ( Claussen et al, 2005 ; Hart et al, 1998 ; Pensola & Martikainen, 2003 ), limiting the trajectories of intra-generational social mobility that could be examined. Many have focused on young to middle-aged people ( Billingsley, 2012 , 2019 , 2020 ; Claussen et al, 2005 ; Hart et al, 1998 ; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2020 ; Pensola & Martikainen, 2003 ; Uggla & Billingsley, 2018 ), meaning the impact of social mobility on mortality at older ages, when the burden of mortality is at its greatest, remains unclear. These studies mainly found that individuals with downward social mobility had higher mortality than those who were consistently advantaged, but the downwardly mobile group did not necessarily have higher mortality than those who were always disadvantaged ( Ericsson et al, 2019 ; Hossin, Heshmati, Koupil, Goodman, & Mishra, 2022 ).…”