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Has the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status Changed?

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Author Info
Susan E. Mayer
Leonard M. Lopoo
Abstract

We use data from the PSID to assess whether the effect of parental income on son's economic status has changed for cohorts born between 1949 and 1965. We find that the effect of parental income on sons' family income and wages at age thirty declined over this period. This was largely because the effect of parental income on son's years of schooling declined. The decline in the effect of parental income is not part of an overall decline in the effect of family background. The effect of parents' education on sons' economic status did not decline and may have increased and the effect of other family background characteristics hardly changed. We suggest that the decline in the effect of parental income on son's income may be due to the increase in government investment in children, especially in their educational attainment.

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Paper provided by Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago in its series Working Papers with number 0116.

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Date of creation: Jun 2001
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Handle: RePEc:har:wpaper:0116

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Keywords: economic status; parents; sons; intergenerational transmission;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Levine, D.I., 1999. "Choosing the Right Parents: Changes in the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality Between the 1970s and the Early 1990s," Papers 72, California Berkeley - Institute of Industrial Relations.
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  2. Murray, Sheila E & Evans, William N & Schwab, Robert M, 1998. "Education-Finance Reform and the Distribution of Education Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 789-812, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, 2001. "The Inheritance of Economic Status: Education, Class, and Genetics," Working Papers 01-01-005, Santa Fe Institute.
  4. Solon, Gary, 1992. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 393-408, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Joseph G. Altonji & Thomas A. Dunn, 1991. "Relationships Among the Family Incomes and Labor Market Outcomes of Relatives," NBER Working Papers 3724, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Solon, Gary, 1999. "Intergenerational mobility in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 29, pages 1761-1800 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Behrman, Jere R & Taubman, Paul, 1990. "The Intergenerational Correlation between Children's Adult Earnings and Their Parents' Income: Result from the Michigan Panel Survey of Income Dynamics," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(2), pages 115-27, June.
  8. Becker, Gary S & Tomes, Nigel, 1979. "An Equilibrium Theory of the Distribution of Income and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1153-89, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Jo Blanden & Alissa Goodman & Paul Gregg & Stephen Machin, 2002. "Changes in Intergenerational Mobility in Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0517, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  2. David I. Levine & Bhashkar Mazumder, 2003. "The growing importance of family and community: an analysis of changes in the sibling correlation in earnings," Working Paper Series WP-03-24, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
  3. Bratberg, Espen & Nilsen, Øivind A. & Vaage, Kjell, 2003. "Assessing Changes in Intergenerational Earnings Mobility," IZA Discussion Papers 797, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  4. Dan Anderberg and Fredrik Andersson, 2003. "Stratification, Social Networks in the Labour Market and Intergenerational Mobility," Royal Holloway, University of London: Discussion Papers in Economics 03/8, Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London, revised Dec 2003. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Joseph P. Ferrie, 2005. "The End of American Exceptionalism? Mobility in the U.S. Since 1850," NBER Working Papers 11324, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. John Hassler & Jose V. Rodriguez Mora & Joseph Zeira, 2007. "Inequality and Mobility," ESE Discussion Papers 165, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Harding, David J. & Jencks, Christopher & Lopoo, Leonard M. & Mayer, Susan E., 2003. "The Changing Effect of Family Background on the Incomes of American Adults," Working Paper Series rwp03-045, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. [Downloadable!]
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