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Is the Simple Law of Mobility Really a Law? Testing Clark's Hypothesis

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  • Kelly Vosters

Abstract

Recent work by Gregory Clark and co‐authors uses a new surnames approach to examine intergenerational mobility, finding much higher persistence rates than traditionally estimated. Clark proposes a model of social mobility to explain the diverging estimates, including the crucial but untested hypothesis that traditional estimates of intergenerational persistence are biased downward because they use only one measure (e.g. earnings) of underlying status. I test for evidence of this using an approach from Lubotsky and Wittenberg (2006), incorporating information from multiple measures into an estimate of intergenerational persistence with the least attenuation bias. Contrary to Clark's prediction, I do not find evidence of substantial bias in prior estimates.

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  • Kelly Vosters, 2018. "Is the Simple Law of Mobility Really a Law? Testing Clark's Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(612), pages 404-421, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:econjl:v:128:y:2018:i:612:p:f404-f421
    DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12516
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    Cited by:

    1. Matías Ciaschi & Mariana Marchionni & Guido Neidhöfer, 2021. "Intergenerational mobility in Latin America: the multiple facets of social status and the role of mothers," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4453, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    2. Neidhöfer, Guido & Serrano, Joaquín & Gasparini, Leonardo, 2018. "Educational inequality and intergenerational mobility in Latin America: A new database," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 329-349.
    3. Torsten Santavirta & Jan Stuhler, 2024. "Name-Based Estimators of Intergenerational Mobility," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(663), pages 2982-3016.
    4. Hsiu-Fen Hsu, 2021. "Intergenerational persistence in latent socioeconomic status: evidence from Taiwan," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(4), pages 753-772, December.
    5. Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri, 2024. "Movilidad social en la educación: el caso de la Universidad de los Andes en Colombia entre 1949 y 2018," Cuadernos de Historia Económica 61, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    6. Braun, Sebastian Till & Stuhler, Jan, 2018. "The Transmission of Inequality Across Multiple Generations: Testing Recent Theories with Evidence from Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 128(609), pages 576-611.
    7. Güell, Maia & Rodríguez Mora, José V & Solon, Gary, 2018. "New Directions in Measuring Intergenerational Mobility," CEPR Discussion Papers 12959, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Pablo Celhay & Sebastian Gallegos, 2023. "Educational Mobility Across Three Generations in Latin American Countries," Working Papers 2023-013, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    9. Inés Berniell & Leonardo Gasparini & Mariana Marchionni & Mariana Viollaz, 2023. "The role of children and work-from-home in gender labor market asymmetries: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1191-1214, December.
    10. Bonacini, Luca & Gallo, Giovanni & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Sometimes you cannot make it on your own. How household background influences chances of success in Italy," GLO Discussion Paper Series 832, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Michele Bavaro & Federico Tullio, 2023. "Intergenerational mobility measurement with latent transition matrices," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(1), pages 25-45, March.
    12. Adrian Adermon & Mikael Lindahl & Mårten Palme, 2021. "Dynastic Human Capital, Inequality, and Intergenerational Mobility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(5), pages 1523-1548, May.
    13. Wei Zou & Ruiqi Ma, 2024. "An Extended Family Perspective on Intergenerational Human Capital Transmission in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 1101-1139, September.
    14. Colagrossi, Marco & d’Hombres, Béatrice & Schnepf, Sylke V, 2020. "Like (grand)parent, like child? Multigenerational mobility across the EU," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    15. Paul Hufe & Andreas Peichl & Daniel Weishaar, 2018. "Intergenerationelle Einkommensmobilität: Schlusslicht Deutschland?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 71(20), pages 20-28, October.
    16. Celhay, Pablo & Gallegos, Sebastian, 2024. "Schooling Mobility across Three Generations in Six Latin American Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 17072, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Ulrika Ahrsjö & René Karadakic & Joachim Kahr Rasmussen, 2021. "Intergenerational Mobility Trends and the Changing Role of Female Labor," CEBI working paper series 21-19, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).

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