ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the patterns of intragenerational mobility in two age groups in the early days of economic reform in Estonia. It utilizes data from the 1991 survey, in which graduates of schools with Russian as the primary language of instruction were interviewed as a control group. Economic reform in Estonia has been extremely radical as regards its liberal economic principles and the modest role of the state. In Estonia, as well as in other post-socialist societies, the emergence of the new middle class has been associated with the development of economic reforms. In state socialist societies the allocation mechanisms of social structure were under direct bureaucratic control. Downward intragenerational social mobility should be greater for the younger age group than for the older age group at the same age but under different economic conditions. The chapter shows that the process of mobility into the stratum of managers should be different for the private and state sectors.
