The chances of upward mobility for children from low-income households in Germany have not improved over the last few decades. This is the conclusion of a new study by Majed Dodin, doctoral student of the GESS, and his co-authors published on the economics blog vox_eu. Among others, FAZ.NET – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Der Spiegel journal have reported on the study.
Although nowadays one in two pupils graduate with A-Levels each year (as opposed to one in five back in the 1970s), parental income still plays a big part: Differences between the income groups did not shrink for students born between 1980 and 1996. “Our study revealed that an untargeted extension of secondary education alone does not lead to higher relative mobility prospects for children from disadvantaged backgrounds,” the researchers summarize.
For their analysis, they used the census data of more than half a million students. There have not been any statistics on social mobility in Germany of this scope before. “The existing statistics for Germany were not really conclusive due to the huge amount of required data,” Dodin says. “So it was not possible to make compelling statements on the development of social mobility either over time or in terms of geographical differences.” The podcast accompanying the article provides more details on the study's methodology.
Original publication: Majed Dodin, Sebastian Findeisen, Lukas Henkel, Dominik Sachs & Paul Schüle (2021): Social Mobility in Germany.