IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iza/izawol/journly2015n176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intergenerational income persistence

Author

Listed:
  • Jo Blanden

    (University of Surrey, and LSE, UK, and IZA Germany)

Abstract

A strong association between incomes across generations—with children from poor families likely to be poor as adults—is frequently considered an indicator of insufficient equality of opportunity. Studies of such “intergenerational persistence,” or lack of intergenerational mobility, are concerned with measuring the strength of the relationship between parents’ socio-economic status and that of their children as adults. However, reliable measurement requires overcoming important data and methodological difficulties. Moreover, the association between equality of opportunity and common measures of intergenerational persistence is not as clear-cut as is often assumed.

Suggested Citation

  • Jo Blanden, 2015. "Intergenerational income persistence," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 176-176, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:y:2015:n:176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wol.iza.org/articles/intergenerational-income-persistence-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://wol.iza.org/articles/intergenerational-income-persistence
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2005. "Fortunate Sons: New Estimates of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States Using Social Security Earnings Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 235-255, May.
    2. Miles Corak, 2013. "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 79-102, Summer.
    3. Pedro Carneiro & James J. Heckman, 2002. "The Evidence on Credit Constraints in Post--secondary Schooling," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 705-734, October.
    4. Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Claudia Vittori, 2017. "Moving Towards Estimating Sons' Lifetime Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the UK," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(1), pages 79-100, February.
    5. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1553-1623.
    6. Jo Blanden, 2013. "Cross-Country Rankings In Intergenerational Mobility: A Comparison Of Approaches From Economics And Sociology," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 38-73, February.
    7. 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.
    8. Corak,Miles (ed.), 2004. "Generational Income Mobility in North America and Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521827607, October.
    9. Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Claudia Vittori, 2014. "Moving Towards Estimating Lifetime Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the UK," DoQSS Working Papers 14-12, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    10. Corak, Miles & Lindquist, Matthew J. & Mazumder, Bhashkar, 2014. "A comparison of upward and downward intergenerational mobility in Canada, Sweden and the United States," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 185-200.
    11. 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.
    12. Solon, Gary, 1992. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 393-408, June.
    13. repec:bri:cmpowp:13/332 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Kerris Cooper & Kitty Stewart, 2013. "Does money affect children’s outcomes?," CASE Reports casereport80, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wolfgang Frimmel & Martin Halla & Jörg Paetzold, 2019. "The Intergenerational Causal Effect of Tax Evasion: Evidence from the Commuter Tax Allowance in Austria," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(6), pages 1843-1880.
    2. Grübl, Dominik & Lackner, Mario & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2020. "Intergenerational Transmission of Unemployment - Causal Evidence from Austria," IHS Working Paper Series 14, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    3. Jo Blanden & Andrew Eyles & Stephen Machin, 2021. "Trends in Intergenerational Home Ownership and Wealth Transmission," CEPEO Working Paper Series 21-05, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, revised May 2021.
    4. Jo Blanden & Andrew Eyles & Stephen Machin, 2023. "Intergenerational home ownership," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(2), pages 251-275, June.
    5. Bubonya, Melisa & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., 2021. "Pathways of Disadvantage: Unpacking the Intergenerational Correlation in Welfare," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    6. Temesgen, Yalfal & Ketema, Mengistu & Ademe, Alelign, 2021. "The Existence and Structure of Rural Households’ Income Mobility: Evidence from Panel Data in Ethiopia (2011-2016)," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 30(01), April.
    7. Arden Finn & Murray Leibbrandt & Vimal Ranchhod, 2016. "Patterns of persistence: Intergenerational mobility and education in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 175, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    8. Daniel Reiter & Mario Thomas Palz & Margareta Kreimer, 2020. "Intergenerational transmission of economic success in Austria with a focus on migration and gender," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 54(1), pages 1-20, December.
    9. 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.
    10. van Elk, Roel & Jongen, Egbert L. W. & Koot, Patrick & Zulkarnain, Alice, 2024. "Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 17035, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rasmus Landersø & James J. Heckman, 2017. "The Scandinavian Fantasy: Sources of Intergenerational Mobility in Denmark and the US," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(1), pages 178-230, January.
    2. Guo, Ningning, 2022. "Hollowing out of opportunity: Automation technology and intergenerational mobility in the United States," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Chris Belfield & Claire Crawford & Ellen Greaves & Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan, 2017. "Intergenerational income persistence within families," IFS Working Papers W17/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Francesco Bloise & Michele Raitano, 2019. "Intergenerational earnings elasticity of actual father-son pairs in Italy accounting for lifecycle and attenuation bias," Working Papers 504, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    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. Uta Bolt & Eric French & Jamie Hentall-MacCuish & Cormac O'Dea, 2021. "The intergenerational elasticity of earnings: exploring the mechanisms," IFS Working Papers W21/07, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    7. 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.
    8. Guido Neidhöfer, 2019. "Intergenerational mobility and the rise and fall of inequality: Lessons from Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 499-520, December.
    9. Daniel D. Schnitzlein, 2016. "A New Look at Intergenerational Mobility in Germany Compared to the U.S," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(4), pages 650-667, December.
    10. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2018. "Intergenerational Mobility in the United States: What We Have Learned from the PSID," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 213-234, November.
    11. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Odermatt, Reto, 2022. "All I have to do is dream? The role of aspirations in intergenerational mobility and well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    12. Tharcisio Leone, 2019. "The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence of Educational Persistence and the “Great Gatsby Curve" in Brazil," Documentos de Trabajo 17526, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).
    13. Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Claudia Vittori, 2014. "Moving Towards Estimating Lifetime Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the UK," DoQSS Working Papers 14-12, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    14. Juan C. Palomino & Gustavo A. Marrero & Juan G. Rodríguez, 2018. "One size doesn’t fit all: a quantile analysis of intergenerational income mobility in the U.S. (1980–2010)," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(3), pages 347-367, September.
    15. Martin Nybom & Jan Stuhler, 2017. "Biases in Standard Measures of Intergenerational Income Dependence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(3), pages 800-825.
    16. Sander Wagner, 2017. "Children of the Reunification: Gendered Effects on Intergenerational Mobility in Germany," Working Papers 2017-03, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    17. John Jerrim & Álvaro Choi & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez, 2014. "Two-sample two-stage least squares (TSTSLS) estimates of earnings mobility: how consistent are they?," Working Papers 2014/35, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    18. Hellier, Joël, 2017. "Stratified higher education,social mobility at the top and efficiency: The case of the French ‘Grandes écoles’," MPRA Paper 76724, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Doruk, Ömer Tuğsal & Pastore, Francesco & Yavuz, Hasan Bilgehan, 2022. "Intergenerational mobility: An assessment for Latin American countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 141-157.
    20. Brezis, Elise S. & Hellier, Joël, 2018. "Social mobility at the top and the higher education system," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 36-54.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    intergenerational income mobility; equality of opportunity; data quality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:y:2015:n:176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.