Intergenerational Mobility in India : A Comparative Analysis of Social Groups

Using Indian Human Development Survey Data set for two rounds, 2004-05 and 2011-12, this paper studies patterns in intergenerational mobility (IGM) in India, and answers four key questions: one, what is the measure of intergenerational mobility in terms of education, occupation and income between fathers’ and sons’ generation; two, what is the direction of mobility, i.e. upward or downward direction; three, how far sons have moved away from their fathers; and four, how the mobility rates depend upon who the person is, i.e. we study the effect of hypothetically changing the social group of a person, ceteris paribus, on IGM. Our results show that over time, there is upward education mobility, and gaps in this mobility have reduced across social groups. However, such pattern is not visible in intergenerational occupation or income mobility, implying that educational advantages enjoyed by the son’s generation do not translate into occupational or income advantages