department of social policy and intervention

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL POLICY AND INTERVENTION

Macro-sociological models of intergenerational social mobility, inequality attitudes and health-related outcomes

Alexi Gugushvili Postdoctoral Research Fellow Departmental Colloquia – MT November 3, 2016

November 3, 2016 Macro-sociological models of

intergenerational social mobility, inequality

attitudes and health-related outcomes

Structure of this presentation

Research experience and interests Social mobility and stratification

1. Macro-sociological models of intergenerational social mobility

2. Intergenerational social mobility and inequality-related attitudes

3. Intergenerational transmission of health-related behaviours

Future work

Research interests and experience

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); poverty

Local and regional development strategies

Welfare state reforms; welfare mix

Public Financial Management (PFM) [World Bank]

Migration: mass emigration, emigration intentions

Citizenship studies - EUDO

Social mobility and stratification

Inequalities in health

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Macro-sociological models of



Methodology

Quantitative methods

Survey design (ISSP, Caucasus Barometer)

Causal inference

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(1) Macro-sociological models of intergenerational social mobility

If life chances primarily depend on ascribed factors rather than achieved ones, they cannot be considered as earned or chosen, and therefore are inherently unfair

In macro-sociological models, intergenerational status reproduction is assumed to be a societal characteristic and other contextual variables are employed to account for its variation

These models can identify social and public policies that could affect intergenerational social mobility

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Hypotheses to test

Economic liberalization

Political democracy

Conventional explanations of differences in mobility

Economic development

Income inequality

Migration

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Economic Liberalization and Intergenerational Mobility in Occupational Status [2015. Comparative Sociology, 14(6), 790–820]

Economic liberalization income inequality [Great Gatsby curve]

Widening income earning opportunities

Quality and equality of access to human capital investment for children and youth

Increased salience of private resources in education and healthcare

“Meritocracy as functional imperative”; “incentive approach”

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Research design

European Values Studies (EVS) data for 21 countries

Mobility defined in terms of International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status (ISEI)

Economic liberalization – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

Linear multilevel models with cross-level interaction coefficients

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Political Democracy, Economic Liberalization, and Macro-Sociological Models of Intergenerational Mobility [Under review]

How does democracy affect social mobility? (De Tocqueville (1835) Pitirim Sorokin (1927)]

Social mobility can facilitate social moderation, stability of the regime

Civil liberties and human rights, a higher degree of religious tolerance, etc

Pluralistic and free electronic and printed media, free and fair elections

Political capital is less likely to affect social mobility

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(2) Intergenerational social mobility and inequality-related attitudes

Social mobility should be informed as much by an explanatory as a normative interest

More than individuals’ own levels of satisfaction or normative assessment of the process by social scientists

How do attitudes of people with different mobility experiences vary?

Life chances, inequality, and welfare state

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Intergenerational Social Mobility and Popular Explanations of Poverty: A Comparative Perspective [Under review]

The self-serving bias in causal attribution – people are more likely to attribute failure to factors that are beyond their control and more likely to explain successes by pointing to their own merits

Individuals start with an initial set of attitudes, but

over the years these preferences are amended based on their experience of intergenerational mobility

Upward social mobility = internal attributions

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Moderating macro-level environment

Socialist legacy The prevalence of individualistic explanations of poverty

More fluid societies are more likely to have individualistic worldviews

Equality or solidarity have become more de-legitimated

Economic development

Development provides greater opportunities to succeed in life

Links between development and individualized attitudes

Adam Smith’s (1817), Max Weber (1930), etc.

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Research design

European Values Studies (EVS) – 41 countries and Life in Transition Survey (LITS) – 26 countries

Dependent variable: The main reason why some people are in need are:

Because of laziness

Because they have been unlucky

It is an inevitable part of modern life

Because of injustice in our society

Methods: Multilevel multinomial regression models

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Objective vs. subjective social mobility

Objective mobility: Intergenerational change in ISEI scores:

±5=non-mobile;

6 to 20 and 21 to 72=upward and strongly upward mobile

–6 to –20 and –21 to –72=upward and strongly upward mobile

Subjective mobility: “I have done better in life than my parents:”

Strongly disagree = strongly downward mobile

Disagree = downward mobile

Neither disagree nor agree = non mobile

Agree = upward mobile

Strongly agree = strongly upward mobile

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Intergenerational objective and subjective mobility

and attitudes towards income differences [2016.

Journal of Inter. and Comp. Social Policy, 32(3), 199-219]

Dependent variable: Respondents are asked to place their views on a 10-point scale:

‘Incomes should be made more equal’ = 1 versus ‘we need larger income differences’ = 10

Independent variables:

Objective social mobility

Subjective social mobility

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Subjective Intergenerational Mobility and Support for Welfare State Programmes

Upward mobility is related to the perception that individual perseverance, skills and talents, are decisive factors for success in life:

Welfare programmes that intend to help individuals realize their full potential should be advocated by upwardly mobile individuals

Developmental welfare state “preparing” rather than “repairing” individuals

Education and healthcare expenditures might be supported by upwardly mobile individuals

Downwardly mobile individuals will prioritise pensions, housing and spending directed to the poor

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Study design

26 countries from LITS 2010

Dependent variable: ‘In your opinion, which of these fields should be the first priority for extra government spending?

Healthcare

Housing

Education

Pensions

Assisting the poor

Independent variables:

Subjective social mobility

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-0.02

-0.01

0.02

0.03

-0.03

-0.01

0.00

0.01

-0.02

-0.01

-0.02

-0.02

0.02

-0.01

-0.02

-0.06

0.06

0.03

-0.01

-0.02

Strongly downward

Downward

Upward

Strongly upward

-0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10

Education Healthcare Housing Pensions Assisting the poor

Point estimates from linear probability models

Figure 2: Subjective social mobility and preferences on extra government spending on various welfare programmes




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(3) Intergenerational transmission of health-

related behaviours

Intergenerational transmission of inequalities is not

limited to social status, wealth, or incomes

Health and health-related behaviours are thought to be related to individuals’ family origins

On the one hand, health/health-related behaviours might be directly transmitted from parents to children

On the other hand, intergenerational social mobility might account for varying health behaviours and outcomes




Intergenerational Transmission of Smoking in Belarus and Russia (Under review)

Cross-sectional surveys of individuals

Tobacco use and dependence may be conditioned by a complex web of genetic, biological, social and cultural factors

Genetic epidemiological studies demonstrate heritability of nicotine dependence

Other forms of parental influence, as well as influences from peer groups and the tobacco environment

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Research gap

Studies are almost exclusively concerned with intergenerational transmission of smoking to adolescents

Not adequately accounting for socioeconomic status in each generation, which independently affects tobacco use

Studies in post-socialist countries: only include adolescents, small samples, do not account for social origin effects, and do not consider a wide array of confounding factors in individuals’ life

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Research design (Study protocol published in BMC Public Health)

Demographic cohort study (PrivMort)

A set of 30 and 20 towns in European part of Russia and Belarus

In addition to respondents’ characteristics, data were collected for fathers’ and mothers’ characteristics

Prevalence of smoking comes close to existing national data

Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regressions

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Future work II

Intergenerational social mobility and mortality outcomes

Downward social mobility hypothesis – elevates levels of stress and feelings of insecurity

Upward social mobility hypothesis – sense of control of one’s own life, generating confidence

Accumulation model of health inequalities

Social mobility is likely to constrain, rather than widen,

health inequalities

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Future work II

Intergenerational social mobility and causes of death

Intergenerational vs. intra-generational mobility in mortality outcomes

Intergenerational mobility, health outcomes and welfare regimes

Effect of mass privatization on mortality

Sample selection for studies of alcohol consumption, sub-national variation of negative health-related behaviours

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Thank you for your attention

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