Drivers of mobility

Empirical studies in developing countries tend to find higher levels of socioeconomic persistence across generations compared with those of high-income economies. However, there have been relatively few advances in the identification of the drivers of such higher levels of intergenerational persistence. By focusing on relevant evidence from developing and emerging economies, this paper points to some of the potential drivers of mobility that are either outside those typically considered in high-income countries or likely to be of greater relevance in the developing world. The paper builds on the standard model of intergenerational mobility to discuss the appropriateness of some of its assumptions in a developing-country context. It will then advance some suggestions for future theoretical and empirical investigations of social mobility in the Global South.