ESRI Research Seminar: "Climbing Up the Ladders and Sliding Down the Snakes: The Effect of Social (dis) Mobility on Subjective Wellbeing"

Venue: ESRI, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2.

Speaker: Dr Grace Lordan, London School of Economics.

Abstract:

Many people remain in the same social class as their parents and this is a cause of much discussion and some concern. We look at how intergenerational mobility affects subjective wellbeing (SWB) using the British Cohort Study. We define mobility as movements inter-generationally across income quintiles and social classes. We find that ‘movin’ on up’ - being mobile - does not have too much impact on SWB. We provide evidence that this may be because previously poorer people save more and do not benefit as much from increased consumption. Sliding on down – dis-mobility – certainly makes people much more miserable. In particular we find that income dis-mobility of more than two income quintiles affects both mental health and life satisfaction. We also show that for mental health the pathway seems to be fears over financial security; however, a large negative effect on life satisfaction still remains.