Lu Ming started the general discussion by questioning the assumption that greater social mobility is better. And, if indeed it is, then how high (great) should it be? In societies where within-family education is widespread, educational mobility will not be observed even if the offspring do better than parents in terms of income. He also observed that inheritance may actually act as an incentive to work hard to build upon or to maintain socioeconomic mobility. Therefore, even if parents pass on a higher proportion of their earnings to their children (yielding a higher value for the intergenerational earnings elasticity), it may not necessarily be an undesirable feature. He cited the Cultural Revolution in China, which resulted in a high degree of social mobility, but it did not mean that those who experienced this mobility were always better off.
Kwanho Shin asked whether there was evidence of a downward mobility trend...