The Mystery of Success: How Family Background Shapes Social Mobility

36 Pages Posted: 28 Sep 2024

See all articles by Jonas Bühler

Jonas Bühler

University of Lucerne

Christoph A. Schaltegger

University of Lucerne

Melanie Häner-Müller

University of Lucerne

Abstract

This study investigates social mobility and its drivers based on a comprehensive measure using a new administrative dataset from Switzerland, comprising over 1,100,000 observations from 23 cohorts. We examine the overall impact of familial factors instead of traditional parent-child associations to provide a wide-ranging indicator of social mobility. Using two-level linear mixed models, we find that family background accounts for 15% of the variation in income. Our approach further sheds light on the underlying factors contributing to the measured family influence, with parental income, parental marital status, nationality and community type showing limited impact. Notably, about 90% of the family effect remain unexplained, indicating a high degree of equality of opportunity.

Keywords: social mobilitysibling correlationdriversdecomposition

Suggested Citation

Bühler, Jonas and Schaltegger, Christoph A. and Häner-Müller, Melanie, The Mystery of Success: How Family Background Shapes Social Mobility. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4970518 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4970518

Jonas Bühler (Contact Author)

University of Lucerne ( email )

Switzerland

Christoph A. Schaltegger

University of Lucerne ( email )

Melanie Häner-Müller

University of Lucerne ( email )

Switzerland

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