Intra-generational and Intergenerational Social Mobility: Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

This study examines intra-generational and intergenerational mobility of employment and income in Vietnam during the 2004–2014 period. It finds there was high mobility across occupations but less mobility across wage-job employment and economic sectors. Upward labour mobility increased over time because of the increase in skilled occupations. The intergenerational elasticity of earnings is estimated at around 0.36. Education plays an important role in increasing intra-generational as well as intergenerational mobility. The earning intergenerational elasticity for children with less than primary education is rather high, at 0.51, while this intergenerational elasticity for those with a college or university degree is much lower at 0.17.