Intergenerational Income Mobility in Taiwan: Evidence from TS2SLS and Structural Quantile Regression

We estimate intergenerational income mobility in Taiwan, employing repeated cross-sectional data. We find that the father–son, father–daughter, mother–son and mother–daughter income elasticities-at-40 are around 0.18, 0.23, 0.50 and 0.54, respectively. Moreover, the mother–child income elasticity increases slightly over children’s birth year, while the father–child elasticity is stable, but we do not find any time trend in elasticities. Since mean-regression results may not be informative in fast growing economies, we estimate relative mobility via structural quantile regression models. The results indicate that parents’ income affects children’s income mainly through the propagation of children’s income shocks, rather than affecting the level directly.