Does more education lower the barriers to social mobility? An analysis of three birth cohorts during a period of educational expansion in Brazil

Salata, Andre and Cheung, Sin Yi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9913-1451 2025. Does more education lower the barriers to social mobility? An analysis of three birth cohorts during a period of educational expansion in Brazil. European Sociological Review , jcaf049. 10.1093/esr/jcaf049

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Abstract

Research in social stratification has long posited that the direct effects of social origin on destination are diminished for individuals with higher education, positioning educational expansion as a potential equalizing force. However, recent studies have raised doubts about this claim, suggesting that the equalization hypothesis remains unresolved. In this study, we contribute to the ongoing debate by analyzing data from three birth cohorts in Brazil, spanning a period of rapid educational expansion. We investigate class mobility, status attainment, and the likelihood of entering non-manual occupations. Our findings indicate that achieving higher educational levels weakens the association between social origin and destination for both sexes in the older cohort. Conversely, in younger cohorts born after the educational expansion, mobility prospects for the highly educated are not significantly better than for those with lower levels of education. In other words, educational expansion in Brazil has not succeeded in weakening the direct link between origins and destinations for highly educated individuals. We argue that these results reflect the positionality of education, whereby the impact of a given credential diminishes as the educational system expands, thereby weakening the ‘composition effect.’

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Additional Information:	RRS applied 21/1/2025 AB
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0266-7215
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 November 2025
Date of Acceptance:	12 October 2025
Last Modified:	21 Nov 2025 10:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182558

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