Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the United States-Measures, Differentials, and Trends

美國代間經濟流動：測量、差異及趨勢

羅伯特．豪瑟(Robert M. Hauser) ； 黃敏雄

《歐美研究》 40卷3期 (2010/09) Pp. 635-681

摘要

Economic research on intergenerational mobility has tended to focus on the extremes of the distribution of economic well-being-either on the inheritance of wealth or on the persistence of poverty. In the general population, there are few reliable measurements of the persistence of income or earnings across generations, and there are no trend data. In this context typical occupational levels of economic compensation may be a useful proxy for personal income or earnings, for many large, national surveys have ascertained the occupations of adult workers and of their parents. For purposes of comparison, I index occupations in two ways, by typical income levels and by typical education levels of workers. I have estimated age-specific intergenerational economic mobility over a 35 year period, using these indicators and data from the 1962 and 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation Surveys (OCG), the 1986 to 1988 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and the 1972 to 2006 NORC General Social Surveys (GSS). Education levels of occupations persist much more strongly across generations than income levels of occupations. For example, among nonblack men, the former regressions or correlations are about 0.37, while the latter are about 0.21. This fact raises interesting questions about the differences between economic and social mobility. While there are differences in intergenerational occupational persistence by race and sex, there is no global trend in the intergenerational persistence of occupational income or education from the 1960s to the 1990s. However, occupational stratification has increased in the Black population, and intergenerational occupational stratification by education has decreased among nonblack men.

關鍵字

intergenerational mobility ； social mobility ； economic mobility ； occupational status

並列摘要

經濟學的代間（如父代與子代）流動研究通常只有聚焦於經濟分配上的兩個極端－財產的繼承或是貧窮的延續。由於缺乏可靠與多時間點的測量，研究者無法針對收入或薪資來瞭解代間流動，以及代間流動隨時間的變化。一個變通的方法是使用職業的一般薪資所得來代表個人的收入或薪資。如此一來，分析資料就不再缺乏，因為有許多大型、具全國代表性的社會調查都有收集受訪者與父母親的職業。為了互相做比較，筆者以兩個指標將職業做表列，一是職業的一般教育程度，另一是職業的一般收入。筆者使用一九六二年與一九七三年的「代間職業變動調查」、一九八六到一九八八年的「收入與計劃參與調查」及從一九七二年到二○○六年的「社會綜合調查」等資料做分析，將樣本依年齡分組，並使用職業的一般教育程度與職業的一般收入做指標，估算長達三十五年的代間經濟流動趨勢。當職業以一般教育程度而非以一般收入作為指標時，代間流動較弱。舉例來說，就非裔之外的美國人而言，前者（教育程度）的代間相關係數約是0.37，而後者（收入）約只有0.21。此項發現意涵經濟代間流動與社會代間流動之間有明顯差異，是有趣且引人深思的議題。儘管代間職業流動程度因種族與性別不同而有所差異，但整體來說，從一九六○年代到一九九○年代，無論是以職業的一般教育程度或是以職業的一般收入做為指標，父代與子代之間的職業流動並沒有隨時間而改變。不過，對非裔美國人來說，代間職業流動程度有減少的趨勢。對非裔之外的美國人而言，以職業的一般教育程度做為指標時，代間流動程度有增加的趨勢。

並列關鍵字

代間流動 ； 社會流動 ； 經濟流動 ； 職業地位

參考文獻

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