The Great Escape: Intergenerational Mobility in the United States Since 1940

Hilger, Nathaniel

doi:10.3386/w21217

Cited by 45 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Hilger [3] however does find the Gatsby correlation between 1940 and 1980, a period of rising mobility and falling inequality driven in part by shifts in social and educational policy similar to those observed in post 2000 Latin America. Hilger's findings are important for this study because using US Census data he finds intergenerational education mobility (IEM) measures closely track more conventional intergenerational income mobility (IM) measures used by Chetty, Corak and others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…However, greater access to secondary and completion of primary is dominant phenomenon in Latin America during this period so focusing on teen education gaps (as we do) makes sense. Either way, Hilger [10] finds IEM measures both age groups are similar 3 . Comparing agecohort education gaps in Brazil and Chile (Figure 3 below, and Figure 4 in the online version of this paper) suggest this is also the case with the SEDLAC teen mobility measures, though not all LatAm countries display this degree of correlation.…”

Section: Intergenerational Mobility and Social Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To track children's income over time one needs longitudinal income data or linked income tax returns as Chetty et al, [2] use. Hilger [10] uses U.S. census data to compare both intergenerational income (IM) and intergenerational education measures. He finds IM and IEM measures track each other closely.…”

Section: Intergenerational Mobility and Social Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Like Conconi et al, [8] this paper relies SEDLAC (Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean) household survey data standardized by CEDLAS with support from the World Bank 1 . The next section of the paper discusses the different measures of intergenerational social mobility comparing the income based measures used in OECD countries with the education-household survey based estimates used here [10]. Section 3 reviews the excellent Latin American social mobility literature and recent reviews of the same.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This second finding is important because while Corak, 2013 and others find the GGC correlation holds across OECD countries, and the evidence over time is decidedly mixed. In particular, Chetty et al, [2] and Hilger [3] use two different measures of social mobility and both find no trend in US intergenerational mobility from 1980 to 2010 despite a sharp increase in inequality. As Torche [4] argues in her recent comprehensive survey of social mobility in Latin America, these findings create a "conundrum and a challenge" for the Gatsby Curve hypothesis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inequality and Mobility: Gatsby in the Americas

Brahim¹,

McLeod²

2016

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We present evidence that the recent fall Latin America inequality has been associated with higher social mobility across countries and over time. This correlation refers to what Alan Krueger and his CEA staff labeled the Great Gatsby Curve, but this is one of the first papers to test the Gatsby correlation over time. Our search for Gatsby curve correlates starts with classic mobility models where high Mincer coefficients and skilled wage-premia enhance wealthier parents' ability to impart advantage to their children. We also refer to Gary Solon and others' updates of their model to emphasize the potential of social policy to assist low-income children. Using Andersen's education mobility measure for teens over a panel of sixteen Latin American economies we test the robustness and correlates of mobility and inequality. We find higher social expenditure, access to credit and particularly conditional cash transfers increase mobility as do falling skill-premia and lower returns to female education. More important, Latin American social policy designed to reduce poverty and inequality in the short run also increased education enrollments and therefore social mobility over the longer term. Hence we find falling inequality is associated with rising social mobility over twenty plus years and across sixteen Latin American countries, as the Great Gatsby curve suggests.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Intergenerational Mobility and Social Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Intergenerational Mobility and Social Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Inequality and Mobility: Gatsby in the Americas

Brahim¹,

McLeod²

2016

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Using Survey Data to Estimate Intergenerational Mobility in Income and Education in Portugal

Clemente-Casinhas,

Martins,

Ferreira-Lopes

2024

Soc Indic Res

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Previous studies about intergenerational mobility for the Portuguese economy find that education and income persistence is very high in comparison with other developed economies. We construct relative, absolute, global and local measures of mobility for Portugal, comparing them with existing evidence for this and other countries. These are the intergenerational income elasticity (computed using the two-sample two-stage least squares method), income correlation, rank-rank slope, bottom to top income level probability, the share of individuals earning more than their fathers and also the intergenerational education correlation, the low to high education level probability, and the share of individuals with a higher education level than their fathers. We consider the 1968–1988 cohorts and the 1995 and 2019 waves of the European Community Household Panel and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, respectively. Overall, based on the point estimates, women seem to present more mobility in income. Upward income mobility is verified at the bottom while persistence exists at the top. Women present a greater absolute educational mobility. More than 80% of individuals have a higher education than their fathers and full upward education mobility exists for children of low-educated fathers. Mobility in education is higher for the offspring of medium–high-income fathers. Individuals with a high education level, in the medium–high income level or with occupations requiring a higher education level show higher mobility.

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