Intergenerational Mobility and the Timing of Parental Income

We extend the standard intergenerational mobility literature by examining the relationship between adult outcomes of children and the timing of parental income during their childhood years, using data from Norway. We find first that, conditional on permanent household income, the child’s human capital is higher in households where income is balanced between the early childhood and late childhood years than in households with a more imbalanced income profile. Second, compared to that in the early and late periods of childhood, income in the middle period has relatively low productivity.