The Italian Mobility Regime: 1985-1997

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze patterns of intergenerational class mobility among Italian men and women aged 24-65, and to test whether there have been any changes in such patterns between 1985 and 1997. We begin our analysis by considering absolute rates of mobility and their trends over time. We then investigate men’s and women’s social fluidity patterns and their variation between 1985 and 1997, employing to this purpose standard log-linear analysis. Our analyses show that absolute rates of mobility have remained substantially stable during the period 1985-1997, with the notable exception of men’s upward mobility rate, which increased by seven percentage points. As regards relative mobility chances, our analyses demonstrate that - at least in the case of men – the overall degree of social fluidity has slightly increased over time.