Web of Science: 0 citations, Scopus: 0 citations, Google Scholar: citations
Revisiting the FJH hypothesis : new data and new measure for an old question on social mobility
Marqués-Perales, Ildefonso (Universidad de Sevilla)
Xiaowei, Sun (Universidad de Sevilla)

Date: 2025
Abstract: This paper attempts to update one of the most entrenched controversies in the field of social mobility: the idea, as maintained by Featherman, Jones & Hauser (1974) in their well-known FJH hypothesis, that societies exhibit a fundamental similarity in social mobility rates. To do that, we exploit the main historical international database that allows a large degree of quality in the comparison due to standardization procedures. To achieve this goal, we utilize the main international historical databases (ISSP, EVS and ESS), enabling extensive cross-national comparisons. We use an alternative nonparametric approach based on the average of the global odds ratios (without requiring any statistical assumptions (as difference uniform). Our results confirm that there is no clear presence of distinct regimes of social mobility; rather, there is only a continuum with two breaking points above or below the threshold that includes the majority of countries. Those outside this threshold are few and are consistently recurrent.
Grants: European Commission 101130456
Note: Production of INCASI2 Project Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), Staff Exchange (GA101130456)
Note: Altres ajuts: Funding for open access publishing: Universidad de Sevilla/CBUA
Rights: Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. Creative Commons
Language: Anglès
Document: Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject: FJH hypothesis ; Relative mobility ; Nonparametric approach ; Global odds ratios ; Cross-national comparisons
Published in: Social indicators research, (2025) , p. 1-33, ISSN 1573-0921

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-025-03559-0


33 p, 1.2 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles

 Record created 2025-03-21, last modified 2025-04-06



   Favorit i Compartir