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Intergenerational Mobility: What Do We Care About? What Should We Care About?

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  • Miles Corak

Abstract

Inequality threatens intergenerational income mobility, but different types of inequality threaten mobility in different ways, raising distinct policy challenges. This is why empirical researchers should be agnostic in the choice of statistics they use to measure intergenerational mobility. I argue that Australia is on the whole characterised by a good deal of intergenerational mobility, but that a full picture requires judicious international comparisons across different dimensions of mobility citizens care about, mobility not just of incomes, but also of position and direction, particularly the scope for upward mobility.

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  • Miles Corak, 2020. "Intergenerational Mobility: What Do We Care About? What Should We Care About?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 53(2), pages 230-240, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:53:y:2020:i:2:p:230-240
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-8462.12372
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    11. Miles Corak, 2006. "Do Poor Children Become Poor Adults? Lessons from a Cross-Country Comparison of Generational Earnings Mobility," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Dynamics of Inequality and Poverty, pages 143-188, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anuradha Singh, 2021. "Regional disparities in Social Mobility of India," Papers 2108.08816, arXiv.org.
    2. Liu, Qijun & Song, Lijie, 2022. "Do intergovernmental transfers boost intergenerational income mobility? Evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 293-309.
    3. Javier Cortes Orihuela & Juan D. Díaz & Pablo Gutiérrez Cubillos & Pablo A. Troncoso, 2024. "Everything’s not lost: revisiting TSTSLS estimates of intergenerational mobility in developing countries," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(1), pages 66-94, February.
    4. Lijie Song, 2022. "Examining the Relationship Between Intergenerational Upward Mobility and Inequality: Evidence from Panel Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 1-27, August.
    5. Lijie Song, 2021. "Does Public Investment Promote Intergenerational Mobility? Who Really Benefits?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 59-80, November.

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