Working Paper: NBER ID: w26442
Authors: Jason Fletcher; Katie M Jajtner
Abstract: Nascent research suggests intergenerational health mobility may be relatively high and non-genetic factors may make room for policy intervention. This project broadens this direction by considering heterogeneous intergenerational health mobility in spatial and contextual patterns. With 14,797 parent-child pairs from a school-based representative panel survey of adolescents (Add Health), this study finds large spatial variation in intergenerational health mobility in the United States. On average relative mobility in this sample is approximately 0.17 and expected health rank for children of parents at the 25th percentile of parent health is 47. These metrics however mask substantial spatial heterogeneity. In cases of low health mobility, rank-rank slopes can approach 0.5 or expected child health rank may only be the 34th percentile. Descriptive school- and contextual-level correlates of this spatial variation indicate localities with higher proportions of non-Hispanic blacks, school PTAs, or a school health education requirement may experience greater health mobility.
Keywords: intergenerational health mobility; schools; place; health outcomes
JEL Codes: I1; I12; I14; J62
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Local context (Y80) | Health outcomes (I14) |
| Parental health (I19) | Child health (I19) |
| Non-genetic factors (C92) | Intergenerational health mobility (I14) |