Sociologists and economists differ in how they study intergenerational social mobility. For sociologists, intergenerational mobility is examined between economic standings, such as class, which are multidimensional, and derived from an individual’s position in the labor market. Economists, instead, have a unidimensional view on this issue, and thus focus on income as the measure between which social mobility is examined. This paper contributes to this literature by examining the association between class and life course earnings trajectories. Utilizing a unique intergenerational data-set supplemented by life course earnings information on Israeli men and women, we show that class, as measured in mid-career, is associated with distinct life course earnings trajectories. We discuss the implications of this finding, and conclude that in the absence of life course earning data, class can serve as a proxy for earnings trajectories.

社会学家和经济学家在研究代际社会流动性的方式上有所不同。对于社会学家而言，代际流动性是在多维的经济地位（例如阶级）之间进行考察的，这些经济地位是从个人在劳动力市场中的地位得出的。经济学家，相反，在这个问题上一维视图，因而注重收入的衡量社会流动性的指标。本文通过研究阶级与人生历程的收入轨迹之间的联系，为这一文献做出了贡献。利用独特的代际数据集，并辅以有关以色列男女的生活历程收入信息，我们表明，按职业中期衡量，该阶层与不同的生活历程收入轨迹相关。我们讨论了这一发现的含义，并得出结论，在没有生命周期收入数据的情况下，阶级可以作为收入轨迹的代理。