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Intergenerational earnings mobility: A new decomposition of investment and endowment effects

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  • Cardak, Buly A.
  • Johnston, David W.
  • Martin, Vance L.

Abstract

This paper investigates the contribution of investments and endowments in generating intergenerational persistence in earnings. The empirical analysis involves the estimation of a theoretical model where log-earnings of children are determined by the log-earnings of parents and two sources of randomness arising from labor market and endowment shocks. An important feature of the model is that it predicts a nonlinear relationship between earnings across generations, thereby providing support for nonlinear specifications adopted previously. Using PSID data on father–son pairs in the US over the period 1968 to 2005, the results show that about one-third of the intergenerational earnings elasticity arises from investments with the remaining two-thirds coming from endowments. The results also show that the relative decomposition varies with log-earnings of fathers, with the investment effect dominating the endowment effect at low incomes and the reverse occurring at high incomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Cardak, Buly A. & Johnston, David W. & Martin, Vance L., 2013. "Intergenerational earnings mobility: A new decomposition of investment and endowment effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 39-47.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:24:y:2013:i:c:p:39-47
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2013.05.007
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    3. Jeremiah Richey & Alicia Rosburg, 2020. "Decomposing joint distributions via reweighting functions: an application to intergenerational economic mobility," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 541-558, July.
    4. Svetlana V. Mareeva & Ekaterina D. Slobodenyuk, 2020. "A Society Of Unstable Well-Being: Income Mobility And Immobility In Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 94/SOC/2020, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    5. Michelle M. Miller & Frank McIntyre, 2020. "Does Money Matter for Intergenerational Income Transmission?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(3), pages 941-970, January.
    6. Berrittella, Maria & Dardanoni, Valentino, 2016. "Nonlinearity in intergenerational income transmission: A cross-country analysis," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-10.
    7. Moshe Justman & Anna Krush, 2013. "Less Equal And Less Mobile: Evidence Of A Decline In Intergenerational Income Mobility In The United Statesless Equal And Less Mobile: Evidence Of A Decline In Intergenerational Income Mobility In The," Working Papers 1315, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    8. Richey, Jeremiah & Rosburg, Alicia, 2014. "Human capital and trends in the transmission of economic status across generations in the U.S," MPRA Paper 60113, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Jeremiah Richey & Alicia Rosburg, 2017. "Changing Roles Of Ability And Education In U.S. Intergenerational Mobility," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 187-201, January.
    10. Jing You & Xinxin Ding & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa & Sangui Wang, 2015. "Lofty pine and clinging vine: The educational 'Great Gatsby Curve' and the role of house prices," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-147, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Yu-Wei Luke Chu & Ming-Jen Lin, 2020. "Intergenerational earnings mobility in Taiwan: 1990–2010," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 11-45, July.
    12. Jeremiah Richey & Alicia Rosburg, 2018. "Decomposing economic mobility transition matrices," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 91-108, January.
    13. Steven N. Durlauf & Andros Kourtellos & Chih Ming Tan, 2017. "Status Traps," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 265-287, April.
    14. Chu, Luke Yu-Wei & Lin, Ming-Jen, 2016. "Economic development and intergenerational earnings mobility: Evidence from Taiwan," Working Paper Series 19495, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    15. Coban, Mustafa & Sauerhammer, Sarah, 2017. "Transmission channels of intergenerational income mobility: Empirical evidence from Germany and the Unites States," Discussion Paper Series 138, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Chair of Economic Order and Social Policy.
    16. Moshe Justman & Anna Krush, 2013. "Less Equal and Less Mobile: Evidence of a Decline in Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2013n43, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    17. Jing You & Xinxin Ding & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa & Sangui Wang, 2015. "Lofty pine and clinging vine: The educational ‘Great Gatsby Curve’ and the role of house prices," WIDER Working Paper Series 147, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Endowments; Educational investments; Nonstandard distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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