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Intergenerational Earnings Mobility Among Daughters and Sons: Evidence from Sweden and a Comparison with the United States

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  • Lalaina H. Hirvonen

Abstract

This article adopts Chadwick and Solon's (2002) model by using family earnings in the study of intergenerational earnings mobility with a highlight on the role of assortative mating. I analyze mean and quantile regression coefficients as well as transition matrices to investigate family earnings mobility between parents and daughters and parents and sons from Swedish register data. My findings indicate that Sweden has a higher degree of mobility compared to the United States, and that assortative mating also plays an important role as a channel through which income status is transmitted across generations in Sweden. However, the difference in intergenerational mobility patterns between the two countries does not, inherently, depend on factors that affect the marriage match. Swedish daughters and sons exhibit a rather similar scheme of intergenerational earnings transmission. Daughters tend to be slightly more mobile than sons, and the difference between their elasticity estimates is small but statistically significant. The quantile regression approach reveals that parents' family earnings are less important as an explanatory variable at the upper end of the children's earnings distribution than they are at the bottom, while transition matrices show substantial earnings persistence in the top earnings class.

Suggested Citation

  • Lalaina H. Hirvonen, 2008. "Intergenerational Earnings Mobility Among Daughters and Sons: Evidence from Sweden and a Comparison with the United States," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(5), pages 777-826, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:67:y:2008:i:5:p:777-826
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2008.00598.x
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    2. Nancy Luke, 2019. "Gender and social mobility: Exploring gender attitudes and women's labour force participation," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Josephson, Malin & Karnehed, Nina & Lindahl, Erica & Persson, Helena, 2013. "Intergenerational transmission of long-term sick leave," Working Paper Series 2013:19, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    4. Black, Sandra E. & Devereux, Paul J., 2011. "Recent Developments in Intergenerational Mobility," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 16, pages 1487-1541, Elsevier.
    5. Chelsea Murray & Robert Graham Clark & Silvia Mendolia & Peter Siminski, 2018. "Direct Measures of Intergenerational Income Mobility for Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 94(307), pages 445-468, December.
    6. Blanden, Jo, 2013. "Cross-national rankings of intergenerational mobility: a comparison of approaches from economics and sociology," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59310, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Dang, Thang, 2015. "Intergenerational mobility of earnings and income among sons and daughters in Vietnam," MPRA Paper 75357, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Timothy J. Bartik & Brad J. Hershbein, 2018. "Degrees of Poverty: The Relationship between Family Income Background and the Returns to Education," Upjohn Working Papers 18-284, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
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    10. Nybom, Martin & Vosters, Kelly, 2015. "Intergenerational Persistence in Latent Socioeconomic Status: Evidence from Sweden," Working Paper Series 3/2015, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    11. David Fairbrother & Renuka Mahadevan, 2016. "Do Education and Sex Matter for Intergenerational Earnings Mobility? Some Evidence from Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 212-226, September.
    12. Chen, Natalie & Conconi, Paola & Perroni, Carlo, 2013. "Multi-trait matching and gender differentials in intergenerational mobility," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 292-296.
    13. Florencia Torche, 2015. "Analyses of Intergenerational Mobility," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 37-62, January.
    14. Inmaculada García-Mainar & Víctor M. Montuenga, 2020. "Occupational Prestige and Fathers’ Influence on Sons and Daughters," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 706-728, December.
    15. Maître, Bertrand & Curristan, Sarah & Russell, Sarah, 2022. "Intergenerational poverty in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS150.

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