Research On Intergenerational Mobility And Its Impact On Economic Growth In China

Intergenerational mobility reflects the change of the social and economic status of the children compared with their parents.It not only reflects the degree of the opening of social opportunities,but is also an important dimension to measure the dynamic inequality of a country or region.No matter in developed or developing countries,family background both significantly affect the social and economic status of the children,and the public policies aiming at improving intergenerational mobility have also attracted the attention of governments.As the largest developing country in the world,China's inequality is the focus of the world.From the perspective of intergenerational distribution,does the socio-economic gap of different families remain among children?This is a major social problem.The current criticism of the second generation phenomenon deeply reflects people's concern about the lack of intergenerational mobility.In view of the current disputes and research deficiencies on intergenerational mobility in China,this paper aims to answer three questions:first,what is the level of intergenerational mobility in China?What' its time trends and structural characteristics?Second,which are the dominant factors to cause the income gap between children from different family background?Third,what is the impact of intergenerational mobility on long-term economic growth?Based on the theories and methods of sociology and economics,this paper draws the following main conclusions:first,from a long historical period,no matter from the perspective of relative or absolute mobility,the mobility of Chinese society is at a high level.However,in all periods,the socio-economic situation of the parents will have a significant impact on the children.Second,the income premium of the children of dominant families mainly comes from the difference of characteristics,and the difference of return is small.These differences are reflected in the better environmental characteristics,human capital characteristics and social capital characteristics.Third,the impact of intergenerational mobility on economic growth is related to the frontier distance.China's development is undergoing a transformation from imitating to independent innovation.In this process,improving intergenerational mobility is not only related to the realization of social equity,but also to the improvement of economic efficiency.Furthermore,this paper has the following policy implications:first of all,although China has higher intergenerational mobility,it has different characteristics in different periods.With the country moving towards the ranks of middle and high income,the relative and absolute mobility will become harder.While China is experiencing the transformation,it is necessary to maintain a reasonable social mobility.Therefore,we should not only maintain reasonable economic growth,but also achieve inclusive growth,which requires more institutional safeguards.Secondly,it is an important measure to restrain the Matthew effect caused by the family background by imposing property tax on the higher family wealth,increasing the transfer payment to the low-income children and reducing the family background discrimination in the labor market.