Does social mobility help reduce health inequality?

Social mobility

Social mobility is actually a sociological term, which contains two meanings. One refers to the migration of population in the region, so it is also called lateral flow. The other layer refers to the promotion of people in the social class structure, which refers to the vertical flow. This paper mainly introduces vertical social mobility.

According to academic definition, social mobility refers to the activities of individuals or groups from one social stratum to another. Specifically, it is the influence of income, education and status of the previous generation on the income, education and status of the next generation. The higher the influence, the lower the social mobility. Further strict distinction, social mobility is divided into intra-generational mobility and intergenerational mobility. The former refers to the change of social status of individuals in their own lives, for example, from a blue-collar class to a white-collar class. The latter refers to the changes in the social status of the next generation relative to their parents, such as Obama becoming the president of the United States from the descendants of an ordinary black immigrant.

Measurement of social mobility

The measure of social mobility is the correlation coefficient of income, education and status between generations, and its value is between-1 and 1. Reasonable social mobility means that the intergenerational correlation coefficient should be within a reasonable range. If the correlation coefficient between generations is-1, this means that if the previous generation is poor, then the next generation will become rich; The previous generation is rich and the next generation is poor, which is usually an intergenerational change and can be realized through large-scale wealth deprivation. Some countries have been trapped in poverty for a long time, mainly because of frequent wars and revolutions, which have led to excessive and impermanent changes between generations. The intergenerational correlation coefficient of normal society is between 0 and 1, and the correlation coefficient should be higher than 0 due to many factors such as genes and natural environment. However, if the intergenerational correlation coefficient tends to 1, the social structure will be completely solidified, and the income, education and status of parents will completely determine the income, education and status of their children.

The importance of social mobility

Why should we emphasize the importance of social mobility? At present, people are highly concerned about excessive government scale, uneven income distribution, educational inequality and health inequality. These problems are reflected in static inequality, while low social mobility and solidified social interest structure will cause dynamic inequality, which will inevitably lead to the stagnation of long-term economic growth.

What is static and dynamic inequality? Suppose there are two societies. In the first society, the gap between the rich and the poor is very small, and the Gini coefficient is only 0.25, but there is no social mobility. Parents are rich, children are rich and parents are poor. The gap between the rich and the poor in the second society is very large, and the Gini coefficient is as high as 0.45, but the social mobility is very strong. No matter what their parents' conditions are, all young people have a chance to succeed. Of course, the latter is more dynamic in these two societies. This is the difference between static inequality and dynamic inequality.

Higher social mobility is a necessary condition for maintaining long-term economic growth. Only when the social mobility is high can we ensure the dynamic opportunity fairness, mobilize the enthusiasm of all the people in society, invest in human capital, work hard and actively innovate. After a country enters middle income, it enters the efficiency-driven stage. At this stage, the core issue is how to encourage people to invest in human capital, whether people are willing to study, receive education and training, and whether they are willing to look for every opportunity to improve their situation, which is the key factor to determine a country's long-term economic growth. To make everyone have such enthusiasm, we must provide him with hope and opportunities, so that he can expect anything as long as he works hard. If no matter how hard a person works, his income and wealth are mainly determined by his parents' income and wealth, he will lose his ambition and motivation for personal struggle and his enthusiasm for investing in human capital. Therefore, high social mobility is the key to promote long-term economic growth.

For an open society, people of different classes should have fair opportunities, and all members of society are encouraged to change their destiny through hard work and competition. On the contrary, for a closed social system, there are few opportunities for the bottom to go up, and it is difficult to change the fate of individuals. The disadvantages of a closed social system are obvious, which will lead to hatred from all walks of life, breed corruption, social instability and reduce the spirit of innovation.

China has just entered the middle-income stage. How to motivate people to invest in human capital, make people willing to study, receive education and training, and find every opportunity to improve their situation is the key to economic development in the efficiency-driven stage.

Comparing the data of countries around the world, we can know that the higher the social mobility of a country, the higher the corresponding economic growth rate; The intergenerational correlation coefficient of education in Peru, Chile and Brazil all exceeds 0.59, which means that if parents are not well educated, it is difficult for children to receive a good education, so they are in a "middle income trap" for a long time; The intergenerational correlation coefficient of education in developed countries is lower than 0.5.

Factors affecting social mobility

As a member of the research group of "Research on Social Stratum Structure in Contemporary China" of China Academy of Social Sciences, Li Chunling believes that a fair, reasonable and open social mobility model has not yet been finally formed in China. "The two most important factors affecting social mobility are education and employment competition."

On July 20 10, the Outline of the National Medium-and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan clearly pointed out that "the balance of compulsory education" should be the focus of work. Cai Hongbin, Dean of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, pointed out in his speech at 201KLOC-0/Peking University Guanghua emba South China Alumni Spring Forum. There is a subtle connection between the reduction of social mobility and the imbalance of educational resources: "Guanghua School of Management of Peking University is not a school that disrespects the poor and loves the rich, but it is basically a" merit-based admission ",and its undergraduate enrollment is concentrated on the top candidates in the country. However, according to the data of Guanghua School of Management from 2003 to 2065438+00, the proportion of students from high-income families is increasing, and the proportion of students from low-income families is increasing. The proportion of students from families with a per capita monthly income of more than 5,000 yuan increased from' almost none' to 25%, while the proportion of students from families with a per capita monthly income of less than 1000 yuan decreased from 60% to about 25%. The proportion of rural students has been less than 10% in recent years, which is in sharp contrast with the data of at least 40% of rural college students in the 1980s. At present, China's rural registered population is still more than the urban population, but the university admission rate is far lower than the urban population. This shows that our social mobility is decreasing, and the opportunities and channels for rural students to change their destiny through attending prestigious schools are drastically decreasing. "

The unfair employment is also affecting the upward mobility of the middle and lower classes. Columnist r o e said in an interview with Southern Metropolis Daily, "It often takes the strength and wealth of the whole family to afford a college student in rural areas, but the bleak employment situation of' unemployed as soon as I graduate' makes the idea of' changing my destiny with reading' increasingly broken; At the other extreme, some well-off' rich second generation' can calmly seek a better career path through their parents' resources without even worrying about the threshold of basic education. The coexistence of "hereditary" in disguise and the new version of "reading uselessness" has seriously blocked the promotion channels at the grassroots level, which is also a remarkable manifestation of the weakening of social mobility. "Agriculture" was completely defeated by "the second generation of the city" in education and job hunting.

From the experience of Nordic countries, we should devote ourselves to promoting education equity and employment equity, and the policy is mainly to help the middle and lower classes. The main measures of these countries are to expand the supply of education, reduce the education cost of middle and lower class people and give them the opportunity to receive higher education and vocational education. In terms of employment, it also focuses on helping the middle and lower classes to find jobs and providing jobs for young people.

Countries have the following policies to promote education equity:

The first is to ensure every citizen's right and opportunity to receive education through legislation, and at the same time adhere to the public welfare and publicity of education. Governments all over the world have included education in the scope of public financial security to prevent the introduction of educational commercialization mechanism from harming vulnerable groups.

Secondly, the balanced allocation of educational resources among schools, urban and rural areas and regions ensures the fairness of policies. Finland has unified national standards and requirements for teachers' qualifications, and unified standards for school teaching facilities and funds. There is no distinction between key schools and key classes to ensure that every student enjoys equal quality education.

The third is to emphasize the priority of vulnerable areas and vulnerable groups and implement the compensation system for vulnerable areas and vulnerable groups. For example, Japan and South Korea have enacted special laws to revitalize education in remote areas; India implements a reserved quota system for vulnerable groups; The United States provides special assistance to disadvantaged students.

Fourth, we should not only pay attention to the fairness of opportunities, but also pay attention to the fairness of processes and results, and establish a personalized learning and counseling system to ensure that no child falls behind and promote the overall improvement of education quality. For example, Finland has established a perfect student assistance and guidance system by setting up class teachers, teacher assistants, teachers with special needs and multidisciplinary working groups.

The fifth is to implement the "second chance plan" and pay attention to the vulnerable groups. For example, Finland adopts a 1 year remedial plan for students who cannot enter ordinary or vocational high schools after nine years of basic education, so that these students can enter ordinary or vocational high schools after 1 year remedial education according to their abilities and interests.

According to China, a youth business, at present, the employment policies of many countries are also aimed at vulnerable groups to a great extent. The main policy measures are:

Encourage employers to hire vulnerable groups through financial subsidies. France began to implement the "Youth Employment Plan" from 1997, providing hundreds of thousands of unemployed young people with five-year non-renewal contracts in the public and non-profit sectors. In 2000, the Korean government provided subsidies to enterprises that hired elderly workers (over 55 years old), and the subsidy ratio was 6% of employees.

Provide vocational training and employment guidance. The Economic Opportunity Act promulgated by the U.S. government provides training for young people who seriously lack employability and lose their jobs to improve their employability. In order to better promote the employment of young people, European and American countries often combine on-the-job training for young people with basic education in schools, so that more middle schools can offer some vocational courses to better adapt young people to the needs of work.

Strive to reduce long-term unemployment. 1998 The EU's Employment Policy Principles require member states to promise to provide every unemployed adult with training, job opportunities or measures to improve their employability within 12 months. Young people can enjoy the above measures after they have been unemployed for six months. Take special measures to help disabled people find jobs and eliminate discrimination in the labor market.

How to improve social mobility

Improving social mobility means reducing intergenerational inequality caused by family background, social background and other factors, eliminating long-term dynamic inequality, enhancing social vitality, promoting social harmony and promoting long-term economic growth.

In recent ten years, various indications show that the social mobility in China has a downward trend, and the actual social mobility is lower than the theoretical prediction based on the gdp growth rate in recent years. The phenomenon of "rich second generation" and "poor second generation" has aroused great concern from all walks of life in recent years, which reflects people's concern about it.

How to reverse the downward trend of social mobility? Cai Hongbin, Dean of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, thinks:

First of all, accelerate the establishment of market rules for fair competition, especially protect the vulnerable groups in the system and give them opportunities and possibilities to participate in fair competition. For people with a low starting point, it is far from enough to give them legal fairness, but also to give them opportunities to improve their own abilities. Such opportunities must be treated equally. On the one hand, it is necessary to reform the household registration system, break the urban-rural dual system, and let farmers and urban residents treat each other equally in life, education and employment; On the other hand, it is necessary to relax the unreasonable market access restrictions in the labor market, cancel all kinds of unnecessary vocational certificate requirements, and let low-income people have the opportunity to enter suitable vocational fields.

Second, government investment has shifted from material capital investment to human capital investment, such as education and health, and special attention should be paid to eliminating inequalities in education and health. Education and health are the components of human capital and the decisive factors of personal competitiveness and socio-economic efficiency, but they are also the most likely to become the gap between different families. Only when the country's public system guarantees citizens equal educational opportunities and medical standards can young people in the lower classes change their destiny through their own efforts.

Third, improve the sense of responsibility of institutions to maintain social mobility. The improvement of social mobility ultimately depends on the equal treatment of all walks of life by enterprises and institutions; Governments at all levels, state-owned enterprises and public schools have the responsibility to provide fair employment and development opportunities for all people, especially the disadvantaged groups.

Our society is entering a new stage of development, so it is necessary to increase social mobility so that all people in society, especially young people from all walks of life, feel motivated and willing to struggle. Only in this way can a healthy society continuously improve efficiency and maintain long-term economic growth.