This is another example of how exogenous factors – those over which individuals have little or no control – may play an important role in determining how easily someone is able to improve his or her circumstances. Communities also affect economic mobility, and here, too, more research is needed to understand how and to what extent these effects occur.
As the samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, said over 300 years ago in the book Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, “Wisdom comes from paying attention to wise people.” And this, I believe, is what GRIPS—and its predecessor GSPS—has been doing over the last 40 years.