Adapted in part from the Opportunity in America series of policy briefs, this volume focuses on social and economic mobility in the United States. The authors find that class or family background has a strong effect on individual success. They examine the possible reasons for this relationship, how it has changed over the past century, and the role of the economy, the welfare system, and education in opening up opportunities for the less fortunate.

Daniel P. McMurrer is a senior researcher at the American Society for Training and Development in Alexandria, Virginia, where his research focuses on the effects of human capital investments such as training and workplace education. Prior to this, Mr. McMurrer was a research associate at the Urban Institute where he studied job security, income inequality, and issues of social and economic mobility. He also co-wrote and co-edited the Institute's Opportunity in America policy brief series with Isabel V. Sawhill. Before joining the Urban Institute, Mr. McMurrer was a social science research analyst at the federal Advisory Council on Unemployment Compensation, where he studied various aspects of the federal-state Unemployment Insurance system.

Isabel V. Sawhill is a senior fellow and holds the Adeline M. and Alfred I. Johnson chair in urban and metropolitan policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Dr. Sawhill was formerly a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and the first occupant of the Arjay Miller chair in public policy at the Institute. Her previous publications include Welfare Reform: An Analysis of the Issues; Challenge to Leadership: Economic and Social Issues for the Next Decade; and The Reagan Record. She served as an associate director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1995.