We study the relationship between inter-class inequality and intergenerational class mobility across 39 countries. Previous research on the relationship between economic inequality and class mobility remains inconclusive, as studies have confounded intra- with between-class economic inequalities. We propose that between-class inequality across multiple dimensions accounts for the inverse relationship between inequality and mobility: the larger the resource distance between classes, the less likely it is that mobility from one to the other will occur. We consider inequality in terms of between-class differences in three areas—education, wages, and income—and in a composite measure. Building on sociological mobility theory, we argue that cross-country variation in mobility results, in part, from families adapting to different levels of between-class inequality. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find a negative correlation between inter-class inequality and social fluidity, with between-class inequality being a better predictor of mobility chances than conventional distributional measures. We also find that the resource distance between classes is negatively related to the strength of their intergenerational association for some off-diagonal origin and destination (OD) class combinations.

中文翻译：

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39个国家的不平等与代际流动的关系

我们研究了 39 个国家的阶级间不平等与代际阶级流动之间的关系。先前关于经济不平等和阶级流动之间关系的研究仍然没有定论，因为研究混淆了阶级内部和阶级间的经济不平等。我们提出，跨多个维度的阶级间不平等解释了不平等与流动性之间的反比关系：阶级之间的资源距离越大，发生从一个到另一个的流动的可能性就越小。我们根据三个领域（教育、工资和收入）的阶级差异以及综合衡量来考虑不平等。基于社会学流动性理论，我们认为流动性的跨国差异部分地导致，来自适应不同等级阶级间不平等的家庭。与这一假设一致，我们发现阶级间不平等与社会流动性之间存在负相关，阶级间不平等比传统的分配措施更能预测流动机会。我们还发现，对于某些非对角线起源和目的地 (OD) 类组合，类之间的资源距离与其代际关联的强度呈负相关。