New Directions for Data, Research, and Policy on Economic and Social Mobility

A new study from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine provides a forward-looking framework for data, research, and policy initiatives to boost upward mobility and better fulfill promises of opportunity and advancement for all members of U.S. society.

The study offers a variety of recommendations for an enhanced research agenda as well as updated policy prescriptions. One key recommendation: creating a National Mobility Center that could serve as a clearinghouse and resource center for statistics on and analysis of mobility trends and dynamics. Such a center, the report outlines, “could become an important hub that pushes forward much of the research agenda discussed in this report; it would make this metric of economic well-being a priority commensurate to the concern and goals of the American public.”

The report, which was outlined in a webinar on Monday, focuses on key domains that shape mobility, including early life and family; the spaces and places where people live and work; postsecondary education; and credit, wealth, and debt. It also discusses the data infrastructure needed to support an extensive research agenda on economic and social mobility.

“Mobility offers an important lens on economic and social well being, complementing traditional indicators such as economic growth, inequality, and poverty,” said Florencia Torche, vice chair of the committee that produced the study and the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Public andInternational Affairs and Sociology, Princeton University.

“The importance of mobility is rooted in a widely shared expectation in the United States that everyone, no matter their family circumstances, should have the chance to achieve a good standard of living, and that the advantages or disadvantages of the case may be of birth should not determine people’s economic well being.”

Other committee members besides Torche:

• H. Luke Shaefer (chair), Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice andSocial Policy, University of Michigan

• Martha J. Bailey, Professor of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles

• Lawrence M. Berger, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison

• Tyson H. Brown, W.L.F. Associate Professor of Sociology, Duke University

• Johnavae Campbell, Manager of Child Welfare and Education, ICF International, Inc.

• Stefanie A. Deluca, James Coleman Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, Johns Hopkins University

• Susan Marie Dynarski, Patricia Albjerg Graham Professor of Education, Harvard University

• David B. Grusky, Edward Ames Edmond Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

• Kathleen Mullan Harris, James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Fabian T. Pfeffer, Professor of Sociology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

• Patrick Sharkey, William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University

• Martha Tienda, Maurice P. During ’22 Professor in Demographic Studies, Princeton University

• Kenneth R. Troske, Richard W. and Janis H. Furst Endowed Chair of Economics, University of Kentucky

“The thrust of the report was really focusing on the kinds of resources, reduction of structural barriers and opportunities that we can give folks regardless of the cultural tradition in which they’re raised,” said Deluca. “We have ample evidence, as we show in the report, that there are a number of things that we can do, regardless of the kind of cultural tradition that a child is born into, to promote economic mobility.”