title: [Vertical social mobility in Spain and ways to improve it. SESPAS report 2014].
abstract: In this article, we analyze the extent to which an individual's socioeconomic status is inherited and how equality of opportunity could be increased to improve social mobility. Poverty and deprivation can stop being dynastic-like if the social elevator works. In Spain, income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient, rose from 0.31 in 2006 to 0.35 in 2012 (moving away from Scandinavia and Central Europe and more closely resembling income inequality in the UK or the United States), while the degree of intergenerational mobility is half-way between that in Italy and the United States. To change this situation and make the social elevator work, primary education should be improved and the health system should be steered toward primary healthcare. This will not be feasible without an improvement in politics and the institutional framework that determine these factors.
authors.affiliation: Agència de Qualitat i Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya (AQuAS), Barcelona, España; CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), España; Instituto de Investigación Biomédica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), Barcelona, España. Electronic address: agarciaaltes@gencat.cat.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: García-Altés
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Economía y Salud (CRES) y Departamento de Economía y Empresa, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, España.
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ortún
mesh_terms: D057172:Economic Recession; D006801:Humans; D012937:Social Mobility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain
keywords: Bienestar social; Clase social; Desigualdad; Equality of opportunity; Igualdad de oportunidades; Inequality; Movilidad social; Social class; Social mobility; Social welfare