Research Agenda for Improving Economic and Social Mobility in the United States Public Webinar

Consensus

Download PDF

Request an exam or desk copy

Intergenerational mobility is an important measure of well-being that underlies a fundamental value: that anyone should be able to succeed economically based on their own merits, regardless of their circumstances. This has been a value held by many Americans throughout U.S. history, even as many observers may rightly argue that it has been, at times and for many groups, severely constrained. For all the emphasis placed on mobility in the United States, the chances Americans have of doing better than their parents and their chances of succeeding economically regardless of the advantages of birth are not higher than in other wealthy countries.

This report provides a forward-looking framework for data, research, and policy initiatives to boost upward mobility and better fulfill promises of opportunity and advancement for all members of U.S. society. The report focuses on key domains that shape mobility, including early life and family; the spaces and places where people live and work; postsecondary education; and credit, wealth, and debt. It also discusses the data infrastructure needed to support an extensive research agenda on economic and social mobility.

Additional materials

Publication information

290 pages · 6 x 9 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-73039-2
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-73040-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/28456

Suggested citation

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Economic and Social Mobility: New Directions for Data, Research, and Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Import this citation to:

H. Luke Shaefer

Dr. H. Luke Shaefer is the Hermann and Amalie Kohn professor of social justice and social policy and associate dean for research and policy engagement at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He also serves as professor of social work and the inaugural director of poverty solutions, an interdisciplinary, presidential initiative that partners with communities and policymakers to find new ways to prevent and alleviate poverty. Dr. Shaefer’s research centers on poverty and social welfare policy in the United States and he has been published in top peer-reviewed academic journals in the fields of public policy, social work, public health, health services research, and history. His work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the U.S. Census Bureau, among others. He has a Ph.D. in social service administration from the University of Chicago. Dr. Shaefer has presented his research at the White House and before numerous federal agencies, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and has advised several of the nation’s largest human service providers.

Florencia Torche

Dr. Florencia Torche (NAS) is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of International Affairs and Sociology at Princeton University. Prior to this, she was the Dunlevie family professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. Her research and writing focus on social inequality and social mobility, educational disparities, and marriage and family dynamics. Her recent scholarship has extensively studied the influence of early-life exposures and circumstances–starting before birth–on individual health, development, and well-being using natural experiments and causal inference approaches. Dr. Torche is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Sociological Research Association. She has a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University. Currently, she serves as deputy editor of the American Sociological Review, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Addressing the Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families, and a member of the board of directors of the Population Association of America. Dr. Torche has led large data collection projects, including the first national social mobility surveys in Chile and in Mexico and her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, among others.

Martha J. Bailey

Dr. Martha J. Bailey is professor of economics in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dr. Bailey’s research focuses on issues in labor economics, demography, and health in the United States, within the long-run perspective of economic history. Her work examines the implications of the diffusion of modern contraception for women’s childbearing, career decisions, and the gender gap in wages and her recent focus examines the short- and long-term effects of Great Society programs. Dr. Bailey has a Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University. She has written numerous articles and co-edited two books. Currently, she leads the NSF-funded Longitudinal, Intergenerational Family Electronic Micro-data (LIFE-M) project and the Michigan Contraceptive Access Research and Evaluation Study (M-CARES). She serves on the editorial board of the American Economic Review and as an editor at the Journal of Labor Economics.

Lawrence M. Berger

Dr. Lawrence (Lonnie) M. Berger is associate vice chancellor for research in the social sciences and Vilas distinguished achievement professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). Prior to this, he was director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW. Dr. Berger’s research focuses on the ways in which economic resources, sociodemographic characteristics, and public policies affect parental behaviors and child and family wellbeing. It aims to inform public policy to improve its capacity to assist families in accessing resources, improving family functioning and well-being, and ensuring that children can grow and develop in the best possible environments. He has a Ph.D. in social work from Columbia University. Dr. Berger is engaged in studies in three primary areas: (1) examining the determinants of substandard parenting, child maltreatment, and out-of-home placement for children; (2) exploring associations among socioeconomic factors (family structure and composition, economic resources, household debt), parenting behaviors, and children’s care, development, and wellbeing; and (3) assessing the influence of public policies on parental behaviors and child and family wellbeing.

Tyson H. Brown

Dr. Tyson H. Brown is associate professor of sociology at Duke University, where he holds the WLF endowed chair. His program of research examines the who, when, and how questions regarding racial inequities in health and wealth. Dr. Brown has authored numerous articles in leading journals in the fields of sociology, demography, and population health, and his research contributions have been recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was the inaugural Duke Presidential Fellow, the recipient of Duke University’s Thomas Langford Award, and a resident fellow at Oxford University. Dr. Brown has been awarded funding for his training and research from the Robert Wood Johnson, the Ford Foundations, and the National Institutes of Health. He has served in leadership positions within professional organizations, including on the Board of Directors of the Population Association of America, as well as on the editorial boards of journals such as Social Forces, Demography, Social Psychology Quarterly, and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Johnavae Campbell

Dr. Johnavae Campbell is a senior manager in child welfare and education at ICF International, Inc. She has over 15 years of experience conducting and managing evaluations using mixed-methods data collection strategies. She evaluates anti-racist, culturally responsive teaching strategies for educational programs, specifically those focused on efforts to promote awareness in science, technology, engineering, and math careers, particularly among students from underrepresented populations. Dr. Campbell also serves as a senior evaluator on a National Science Foundation-funded Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discovers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) effort to broaden STEM participation and retention efforts for first-generation college access and readiness efforts in West Virginia and Arizona. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and served as an adjunct professor in the School of Education, where she completed her doctoral degree. Her research includes program evaluation specializing in collaborative approaches, college access, broadening STEM participation, and issues of equity. Dr. Campbell has evaluation expertise in managing Department of Education-funded grants conducting experimental and quasi-experimental impact and fidelity of implementation study designs.

Stefanie A. DeLuca

Dr. Stefanie A. DeLuca is the James Coleman professor of sociology and social policy in the Department of Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, director of the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab, and an affiliate of Opportunity Insights at Harvard University. She has a Ph.D. in human development and social policy from Northwestern University. Dr. DeLuca has written extensively on education, neighborhoods, housing policies, and mobility among low-income families. Dr. DeLuca’s research has been made possible by support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Abell Foundation, Spencer Foundation, National Academy of Education, William T. Grant Foundation, Gates Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Education. She serves on a Federal Research Advisory Commission at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and has been invited to share her research to support policy recommendations at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and for several state legislatures.

Susan M. Dynarski

Dr. Susan Marie Dynarski is Patricia Albjerg Graham professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is also faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dr. Dynarski has a Ph.D. in economics from MIT. She was selected as a Carnegie fellow in 2020 and in 2017 the Association for Public Policy and Management awarded her the Spencer Foundation Award for excellence in research. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators awarded her the Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award for excellence in research on student aid. Dr. Dynarski was named a top ten influencer in 2015 by The Chronicle of Higher Education. She has served on the board of editors of the American Economic Journal/Economic Policy, The Journal of Labor Economics and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, on the board of the Association for Public Policy and Management, and is past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy and Midwest Economics Association. Dr. Dynarski’s research focuses on understanding and reducing inequality in education. She uses large-scale datasets and quantitative methods of causal inference to understand the effects of charter schools, financial aid, postsecondary schooling, class size, and high school reforms on academic achievement and educational attainment.

David B. Grusky

Dr. David B. Grusky is Edward Ames Edmonds professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, professor of sociology, senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, and coeditor of Pathways Magazine. Dr. Grusky is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, co-recipient of the 2004 Max Weber Award, founder of the Cornell University Center for the Study of Inequality, and a former presidential young investigator. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He carries out research in inequality, poverty, mobility, gender, and quantitative and qualitative methods. Dr. Grusky’s recent books include Inequality in the 21st Century (with Jasmine Hill, 2017), Social Stratification (with Kate Weisshaar, 2014), Occupy the Future (with Douglas McAdam, Robert Reich, and Debra Satz, 2012), The New Gilded Age (with Tamar Kricheli-Katz, 2011), and The Great Recession (with Bruce Western and Chris Wimer, 2011).

Kathleen Mullan Harris

Dr. Kathleen Mullan Harris (NAS) is the James E. Haar distinguished professor of sociology and adjunct professor of public policy in the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on social inequality and health, with a focus on health disparities, biodemography, social science genomics, and life course and aging processes. Dr. Harris continues to work with an interdisciplinary set of scholars from sociology, epidemiology, nutrition, economics, cardiology, genetics, and survey methods, to publish research on such topics as the health effects of despair, isolation, and stress; social genetic effects; health costs of upward mobility; early life origins of biological aging; and the obesity epidemic and young adult health. Dr. Harris has a Ph.D. in demography from the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded the Golden Goose Award from the U.S. Congress for major breakthroughs in medicine, social behavior, and technological research, and the Irene Taeuber Award from the Population Association of America in recognition of original and important contributions to the scientific study of population. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Fabian T. Pfeffer

Dr. Fabian T. Pfeffer is a professor of sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) in Germany and an adjunct professor in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Prior to his appointment at LMU Munich, he served as director of the Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics and as a research associate professor at the Institute for Social Research. His research investigates social inequality and its maintenance across generations and time. Dr. Pfeffer’s current projects focus on wealth inequality and its consequences for the next generation, social mobility across multiple generations, the maintenance of inequality through education, and the effects of experiencing social mobility. He is the recipient of the Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association’s section on inequality, poverty, and mobility as well as the section on sociology of education. Dr. Pfeffer has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously, he served as an invited expert for the 2018 National Academies’ expert meeting on Using Longitudinal Studies of Younger Cohorts for Aging Research and as a steering committee member for the workshop 2022 National Academies’ workshop on Strengthening the Evidence Base to Improve Economic and Social Mobility in the United States.

Patrick Sharkey

Dr. Patrick Sharkey is William S. Tod professor of sociology and public affairs in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University. Prior to this, he served as chair of sociology at New York University and as scientific director at Crime Lab, New York. He is also the founder of AmericaViolence.org. Dr. Sharkey’s research focuses on urban inequality, violence, and public policy. He received his Ph.D. in sociology and social policy from Harvard University. He is widely published in areas such as community violence, neighborhood crime, economic mobility, and the relationship between child test scores and localized crime.

Marta Tienda

Dr. Marta Tienda is Maurice P. During ’22 professor in demographic studies, professor of sociology and public affairs emerita, and a visiting senior scholar at the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University. She is president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, past president of the Population Association of America, served as chair of the NRC Panel on Hispanics, and served on the NRC Panel on the Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Immigration. Dr. Tienda has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, she serves as an independent trustee of the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association (TIAA), the Urban Institute, the Holdsworth Center for Excellence in Education, and the Robin Hood Foundation. Dr. Tienda’s research focuses on race and ethnic differences in various metrics of social inequality—ranging from poverty and welfare to education and employment—to address how ascribed attributes acquire their social and economic significance.

Kenneth R. Troske

Dr. Kenneth R. Troske is Richard W. and Janis H. Furst endowed chair of economics at the University of Kentucky. He also serves as research fellow with the Institute for the Study of Labor. Previously, Dr. Troske served as a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel, whose task was to assess the existing condition of America’s financial markets and the regulatory system as well as to closely monitor the actions of the Treasury Department and financial institutions to determine if their actions are in the best interest of the American economy as well as a commissioner on the Commission for Evidence-based Policymaking and on the Federal Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. Dr. Troske’s primary research areas are labor and human resource economics. He has authored numerous papers utilizing employer-employee-matched data on topics such as education, productivity, technology, and discrimination. His papers have appeared in many leading journals in economics including the Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Review of Economics and Statistics, and the American Economic Review.

Webinar

Research Agenda for Improving Economic and Social Mobility in the United States Public Webinar

September 22, 2025

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (ET)

Past

Materials

Economic and Social Mobility Webinar Slides

About

Intergenerational mobility is an important measure of well-being that underlies a fundamental value: that anyone should be able to succeed economically based on their own merits, regardless of their circumstances. For all the emphasis placed on mobility in the United States, however, the chances that Americans have of doing better than their parents and their chances of succeeding economically regardless of the advantages of birth are not higher than in other wealthy countries.

Economic and Social Mobility, a new consensus study from the Committee on Population and Committee on National Statistics, provides a forward-looking framework for data, research, and policy initiatives to boost upward mobility and better fulfill promises of opportunity and advancement for all members of U.S. society. In this webinar, study committee members will discuss the report’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations addressing issues in: (1) Early Life and Family; (2) Space and Place; (3) Postsecondary Education; (4) Wealth, Credit, and Debt; and (5) Data Infrastructure.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Rebecca Krone

(202) 334-2515
rkrone@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Log In

Sign in to access your saved publications, downloads, and email preferences.

Former MyNAP users: You'll need to reset your password on your first login to MyAcademies. Click "Forgot password" below to receive a reset link via email. Having trouble? Visit our FAQ page to contact support.

Members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, or National Academy of Medicine should log in through their respective Academy portals.

Email (required)
Password (required)

Don't have an account?

Register

Email (required)
New password (required)
Retype password (required) Password must be at least 8 characters
I accept the terms of use
terms of use

Thank You

Thank you for creating a MyAcademies account!

Enjoy free access to thousands of National Academies' publications, a 10% discount off every purchase, and build your personal library.

Forgot Password

Enter the email address for your MyAcademies (formerly MyNAP) account to receive password reset instructions.

Reset Requested

We sent password reset instructions to your email . Follow the link in that email to create a new password. Didn't receive it? Check your spam folder or contact us for assistance.

Reset Password

New password (required)
Retype password (required) Password must be at least 8 characters

Reset Password

Your password has been reset.

Log In

Verify email

Verify Your Email Address

We sent a verification link to your email. Please check your inbox (and spam folder) and follow the link to verify your email address. If you did not receive the email, you can request a new verification link below

Subscribe

First Name
Last Name
Email (required)
I agree to receive emails from the National Academies (required)

We respect your privacy and will never share your information.

Research Agenda for Improving Economic and Social Mobility in the United States

Featured publication

Description

Collaborators

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Parent projects

Committee on Population

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Health Care Financing to Improve Availability of Affordable Contraception: Identifying Promising Practices

Transit Cooperative Research Program

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Social and Economic Systems Program Area

Peer Review of the Marine Recreational Information Program Data Standards

Enhancing Scientific Integrity: Progress and Opportunities in the Social and Behavioral Sciences - A Workshop

Additional materials

Publication information

Suggested citation

Materials

About

Additional Information

Contact

Rebecca Krone

Disclaimer

My Academies

Research Agenda for Improving Economic and Social Mobility in the United States

Dropdown items

Featured publication

Economic and Social Mobility: New Directions for Data, Research, and Policy

Description

Collaborators

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Parent projects

Committee on Population

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Health Care Financing to Improve Availability of Affordable Contraception: Identifying Promising Practices

Transit Cooperative Research Program

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Social and Economic Systems Program Area

Peer Review of the Marine Recreational Information Program Data Standards

Enhancing Scientific Integrity: Progress and Opportunities in the Social and Behavioral Sciences - A Workshop