Intergenerational social mobility across three generations and mortality risks in northeast China, 1749-1909

To date, no study has satisfactorily addressed the relationship between social mobility and mortality in China’s context. The present paper examines how grandparents’ status, parents' status and individuals' status together influence the physical well-being of individuals, using the China Multi-Generational Panel Dataset-Liaoning (CMGPD-LN). A mobility-Path model is proposed to estimate effects of specific components in individual mobility course for three generations. Results show that mobility itself has effects on mortality risks. The relative effects of grandfather position, father position and individual position vary by individuals' childhood, early adulthood and late adulthood. Cumulative effects of socioeconomic circumstances over a lifetime are not obvious in the current analysis.