Intergenerational mobility and occupational status in Italy

Abstract

This study examines the intergenerational transmission of socio-economic status, using data from the 2000 wave of the Bank of Italy's Survey on Household Income and Wealth: specifically, analysing the relationship between the occupational status of parents and their children. Reducing the extent to which an individual's economic or social success is shaped by the economic or social position of their parents has been on the agenda of the Italian government for a long time and is at the root of the Italian centralized and egalitarian system of education. However, our empirical results suggest that the achievements of children continue to be highly dependent on the social status of their parents, especially their fathers. Whilst Italy's egalitarian education system may have removed some of the inequities in human capital accumulation arising from capital market imperfections, it would seem that additional measures are required to further facilitate intergenerational social mobility.