Multidimensional Social Mobility and Pathways to Upward Mobility in Austria

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

Research on intergenerational social mobility clarifies to what extent and how parental background shapes opportunities and attainments along the lifecycle. While several studies have documented the evolution of income inequality in Austria, comprehensive evidence on intergenerational social mobility in Austria and more particular its underlying drivers does not exist. The project MOBILITY-PATH will fill this gap and develops a novel data infrastructure for research on intergenerational mobility and is funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF).

First, to understand intergenerational mobility across various dimensions and geographies we develop a novel data set for research on intergenerational mobility, based on various administrative registers and sources. Second, we will explore how early-life factors like neighborhoods and schooling, or vocational training and labor market conditions, as well as higher education expansion, impact upward mobility. MOBILITY-PATH can answer these questions by employing research designs tailored to Austria’s institutional landscape on a novel combination of eight individual-level register and administrative datasets available in the Austrian Micro Data Center (AMDC) and covering birth cohorts since 1960.

MOBILITY-PATH will provide pioneering evidence by investigating the extent of and heterogeneity in intergenerational mobility in education, occupation, earnings, and individual and family income. In addition to insights at the country level, our detailed data allows us to assess social mobility at various sub-national levels and for population subgroups defined by gender and migration background. The resulting dataset will be made available via an interactive webpage, the Social Mobility Atlas Austria. Second, MOBILITY-PATH investigates the causal effect of neighborhoods on intergenerational mobility, and studies to what extent these effects are driven by schools. In Austria, 40 percent of young adults enter the labor market after compulsory schooling via vocational training schemes. Part three of the MOBILITY-PATH project focuses on the impact of vocational training on social mobility. As the demand for vocational training occupations depends on economic conditions, MOBILITY-PATH proposes to investigate the causal link between trade-induced changes in the demand for different occupational skills and social mobility among those who completed vocational training. Finally, obtaining tertiary education in Austria is a main pathway to higher incomes. We investigate if attending and completing a degree by type of institution and field of study increases upward mobility in education and income, and if so, for whom.
AcronymMOBILITY-PATH
StatusActive
Effective start/end date1/01/2430/04/27

Collaborative partners

  • Vienna University of Economics and Business (lead)

Keywords

  • Economics of distribution
  • Intergenerational mobility
  • Social mobility
  • Equality of opportunity
  • Neighborhoods
  • Social stratification
  • Educational inequality
  • Education policy

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