Chapter Five. Intergenerational Mobility and Social Fluidity in France over Birth Cohorts and Across Age: The Role of Education

Using the 1970, 1977, 1985, 1993, and 2003 Formation – Qualification Professionnelle (INSEE) surveys, this article analyzes how intergenerational social mobility and social fluidity have evolved in France for men and women born between 1906 and 1973. It demonstrates that the statistical association between class of origin and class of destination has become weaker in recent cohorts than it was in older ones, and also shows that the same association diminishes with age, that is to say, along the occupational career pathway. Finally, it demonstrates that changes in education have played a key role in the process of increasing social fluidity. In the 1945–54 cohort, the more equal educational opportunity was the primary factor and educational expansion was the secondary factor that explain the decreasing association between class of origin and class of destination, but the relative importance of these two factors is reversed in the 1955–64 and 1965–73 cohorts.JEL Classification: I21 – I24 – I26 – J62