Working Paper: NBER ID: w22094
Authors: Claudia Olivetti; M. Daniele Paserman; Laura Salisbury
Abstract: This paper estimates intergenerational elasticities across three generations in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We extend the methodology in Olivetti and Paserman (2015) to explore the role of maternal and paternal grandfathers for the transmission of economic status to grandsons and granddaughters. We document three main findings. First, grandfathers matter for income transmission, above and beyond their effect on fathers' income. Second, the socio-economic status of grandsons is influenced more strongly by paternal grandfathers than by maternal grandfathers. Third, maternal grandfathers are more important for granddaughters than for grandsons, while the opposite is true for paternal grandfathers. We present a model of multi-trait matching and inheritance that can rationalize these findings.
Keywords: intergenerational mobility; economic status; grandparents; gender differences
JEL Codes: J12; J62; N31; N32
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| paternal grandfathers' income (D31) | grandsons' income (D31) |
| maternal grandfathers' income (D31) | granddaughters' income (D14) |