What we know and do not know about social mobility

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the field of social mobility research, examiningboth class/occupational mobility and income mobility. It traces the historical development ofsociological and economic approaches, highlighting key theoretical debates, methodologicalinnovations like log-linear modelling and adjustment for measurement error and life-cycle biases, andthe challenges of data collection and measurement error. The author discusses influential hypotheses, including the "LZ" and "FJH" hypotheses in sociology and the "Great Gatsby Curve" in economics, while also addressing the complexities of comparing mobility across countries, time, anddemographic groups. Ultimately, the chapter reflects on the current state of knowledge and identifiesfuture directions for understanding the dynamics of social mobility and persistence.