Does Education Really Improve Intergenerational Income Mobility?

As the whole people enter a well-off society,the inequality of income distribution and the solidification of social strata remain the focus of attention of the government,society and individuals.Intergenerational mobility,as a measure of equal opportunities,is an important manifestation of social equity.The low intergenerational mobility shows that children of different social strata are not equal in the face of competition rules.With the popularity of such remarks as "noble children are harder to come out of a poor family" and "the second generation is better off than reading",the whole people began to question education.Can knowledge really change the destiny? Some scholars believe that education can change fate and promote individuals to move to higher social strata.Others believe that education is a way for elites to monopolize resources,which will lead to the reproduction of social inequality.This paper calculates the intergenerational income mobility of Chinese residents by using CHIP data for 1995 and 2013 and two-stage estimation method with two samples,and discusses whether education can improve the intergenerational income mobility by using an elastic model including children’s education years and interaction items.The results show that strengthening education is an important means to achieve social stratum leapfrogging,and the increase of children’s educational years can improve intergenerational income mobility.Increasing children’s education years can improve intergenerational income mobility of urban and rural residents,but the effect is better in rural areas.When income quantile returns,the intergenerational mobility of the middle income class is higher than that of both ends,and the role of education is significant.The improvement of education level promotes the middle class to move to the upper stratum of society.Therefore,the government should create a fair environment,actively improve the income distribution policy,strive to improve the income of rural residents and other vulnerable groups,and narrow the gap between rich and poor.The government should ensure the fairness of education,realize the balanced distribution of educational resources,pay special attention to the families at the bottom of the society,support their educational funds and publicize and guide their educational concepts,so that the poor students can change their destiny through reading.