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This paper shows the results of a research project on relative social mobility patterns in Spain during the second half of the 20th century. The data were collected by the Spanish National Statistics Institute for the Survey of Incomes and Living Conditions (2005). This empirical material has not been used previously and it provides new data about the last decade of the 20th century. The social fluidity models created by Erikson and Goldthorpe in The Constant Flux (1992) have been applied. In short, this paper confirms that the rates of the social fluidity remain invariant during this period and that the patterns of core social fluidity for European countries closely match the Spanish case. Nevertheless, this mobility regime has certain particularities resulting from the characteristics of Spain's social and economic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of school performance (primary effects) and the structure of costs and benefits that individuals of different social class face (secondary effects) on the transition from compulsory to non-compulsory education in Spain. We find that both predictors of educational paths seem to operate through an interactive effect, which contributes to reproducing educational inequalities. This interaction suggests that school performance is not interpreted in the same way by individuals from different social classes. In concrete, the resources and social capital of upper class families provide compensation effects leading to a greater probability of students from upper classes with poor grades reaching post-compulsory secondary education and higher education in comparison to lower class students with the equivalent grades. Therefore, inequality by social class of origin is greatest among students with the lowest grades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]