Social Effect of Intergenerational Academic Background Mobility

Focusing on the Pros and Cons for Redistribution

Abstract

Studies in the sociology of education have not paid sufficient attention to the social effects of intergenerational academic background mobility. Intergenerational academic background mobility means the change between an individual's academic background and that of his/her father. This paper examines support for redistribution to clarify the effect. Using the integrated data of JGSS-2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, the author finds that college graduates whose fathers are also college graduates tend to not support redistribution compared to college graduates whose fathers are graduates from compulsory education alone. This means that intergenerational academic background mobility has a gap-widening effect. People who receive an advantage by the fact that their own fathers are college graduates tend to not support redistribution, implying that the gap will continuously expand.
The policy implication of this paper is that as the percent of students pursuing higher education increases, people who tend to not support redistribution will also increase. It is possible, thus, that it will become more difficult for policy makers to implement redistribution policies.