(Running Head: Social Mobility in Korea)

This study intends to investigate the patterns of intergenerational mobility among Korean men and to assess the extent to which the Korean case shows distinctiveness within the framework of the core model proposed by Erikson and Goldthorpe (1992a). The greater dissimilarity between origins and destinations associated with massive movement of labor forces out of farm origins, and in the process the predominance of upward over downward mobility are distinctive features of Korea compared to England, France, and Sweden. More importantly, Korean society shows substantial deviations from the core model as four effects among original eight effects in the core more turn out to be non-significant. Finally, the analysis of the log-multiplicative layer effect model even suggests that the overall level of fluidity appears higher in Korea relative to the three European countries.