Does social trust shape the perceived intergenerational social mobility?

Intergenerational mobility is considered as an indicator of opportunity equality by interdisciplinary scholars. Recent literature has increasingly focused on international comparisons to unravel the underlying forces shaping disparities in intergenerational mobility. While illuminating, this branch encounters significant challenges stemming from unobserved factors, particularly social norms and values, which threaten the credibility of findings. However, most previous studies do not address such concerns. In this paper, we pay special attentions to the role of social trust in shaping the intergenerational mobility. More specifically, perceived upward mobility is of our top interest because it not only is deemed to be a strong reflection of the real socio-economic distribution, but also directs to individuals' behaviors. Employing a multilevel regression approach, our analysis confirms the positive impact of general trust on perceived upward mobility. The result remains robust across alternative measures and methods. Notably, it mitigates the potential endogeneities by incorporating proxies for individuals' optimistic nature and the instrumental variable strategy. Through further investigations, this paper reveals that the effect of trust differs across regime types, income groups, geography and institutions. Moreover, we identify institutional quality and social interactions as potential mechanisms shaping perceived mobility. Additionally, individuals with upward mobility experiences exhibit reduced preferences for redistribution. This paper contributes to the mobility literature by highlighting the significance of the social norms and values beyond the known factors of perceived intergenerational mobility. It underscores the importance of social trust in intergenerational mobility and advocates for proactive engagement of city practitioners in fostering trust through civic initiatives and community structures.