This paper assesses recent patterns in intergenerational social mobility across OECD countries and
examines the role that public policies can play in affecting such mobility. It shows that the relationship
between parental or socio-economic background and offspring’s educational and wage outcomes is
positive and significant in practically all countries for which evidence is available. Intergenerational social
mobility is measured by several different indicators since no single indicator provides a complete picture.
However, one pattern that emerges is of a group of countries, e.g. southern European countries and
Luxembourg, which appears to rank as relatively immobile on most indicators, while another group, e.g.
Nordics, is found to be more mobile. Furthermore, public policies such as education and early childcare
play a role in explaining observed differences in intergenerational social mobility across countries. In
addition, this study also finds a positive cross-country correlation between intergenerational social mobility
and redistributive policies.
