Authors
Summary
Utilizing the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we explore the degree to which less-talented offspring from privileged social origins is protected against downward mobility – i.e. benefiting from a ‘glass floor effect’. We identify abilities in terms of both educational attainment and cognitive skills. Our study estimates separately the impact of salariat (upper service class) and semi-professional–technical (lower service class) origins. The motivation behind this comparison is that we should expect parents from the upper service class to command comparatively stronger cultural and socio-economic resources with which they can protect their less-gifted offspring from downward mobility. Examining mobility in terms of social class destinations as well as income differentials by gender, we find that low-ability (male) offspring of salariat class parents enjoy a significant income advantage. However, we fail to observe any statistically significant differences between salariat and the lower service class origins in terms of social class mobility. Our analyses are especially focussed on the mobility dynamics of offspring with low cognitive abilities. We include data on personality traits and find that extroversion compensates to an extent for poor cognitive skills among both men and women. Our study will focus on possible gender differences throughout.
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