Working Paper: NBER ID: w15889
Authors: Sandra E. Black; Paul J. Devereux
Abstract: Economists and social scientists have long been interested in intergenerational mobility, and documenting the persistence between parents and children's outcomes has been an active area of research. However, since Gary Solon's 1999 Chapter in the Handbook of Labor Economics, the literature has taken an interesting turn. In addition to focusing on obtaining precise estimates of correlations and elasticities, the literature has placed increased emphasis on the causal mechanisms that underlie this relationship. This chapter describes the developments in the intergenerational transmission literature since the 1999 Handbook Chapter. While there have been some important contributions in terms of measurement of elasticities and correlations, we focus primarily on advances in our understanding of the forces driving the relationship and less on the precision of the correlations themselves.
Keywords: intergenerational mobility; human capital; causal mechanisms; public policy
JEL Codes: I20; J62
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Parental education (I24) | Children's outcomes (I24) |
| Parental income (D31) | Investments in children's human capital (J24) |
| Investments in children's human capital (J24) | Children's earnings potential (J17) |
| Parental income (D31) | Children's outcomes (I24) |
| Genetic factors (C29) | Intergenerational persistence in income and education (I24) |
| Public policies (H59) | Intergenerational mobility (J62) |
| Credit constraints (E51) | Investments in children's education (I21) |
| Credit constraints (E51) | Intergenerational elasticity (D15) |