We use administrative records on the incomes of more than 40 million children and their parents to describe three features of intergenerational mobility in the United States. First, we characterize the joint distribution of parent and child income at the national level. The conditional expectation of child income given parent income is linear in percentile ranks. On average, a 10 percentile increase in parent income is associated with a 3.4 percentile increase in a child’s income. Second, intergenerational mobility varies substantially across areas within the U.S. For example, the probability that a child reaches the top quintile of the national income distribution starting from a family in the bottom quintile is 4.4% in Charlotte but 12.9% in San Jose. Third, we explore the factors correlated with upward mobility. High mobility areas have (1) less residential segregation, (2) less income inequality, (3) better primary schools, (4) greater social capital, and (5) greater family stability. While our descriptive analysis does not identify the causal mechanisms that determine upward mobility, the publicly available statistics on intergenerational mobility developed here can facilitate research on such mechanisms. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reect

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Where is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States*

My focus is on the degree to which increasing inequality in the high-income countries, particularly in the United States, is likely to limit economic mobility for the next generation of young adults. I discuss the underlying drivers of opportunity that generate the relationship between inequality and intergenerational mobility. The goal is to explain why America differs from other countries, how intergenerational mobility will change in an era of higher inequality, and how the process is different for the top 1 percent. I begin by presenting evidence that countries with more inequality at one point in time also experience less earnings mobility across the generations, a relationship that has been called “The Great Gatsby Curve.” The interaction between families, labor markets, and public policies all structure a child's opportunities and determine the extent to which adult earnings are related to family background—but they do so in different ways across national contexts. Both cross-country compa...

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Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility

https://hceconomics.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/file_uploads/2_HO_Corak_2013_Income-Inequality-JEP-HO_STATIC_2016-01-02a_jld.pdf

Extract from \Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility"

The singular focus of public debate on the “top 1 percent” of households overlooks the component of earnings inequality that is arguably most consequential for the “other 99 percent” of citizens: the dramatic growth in the wage premium associated with higher education and cognitive ability. This Review documents the central role of both the supply and demand for skills in shaping inequality, discusses why skill demands have persistently risen in industrialized countries, and considers the economic value of inequality alongside its potential social costs. I conclude by highlighting the constructive role for public policy in fostering skills formation and preserving economic mobility.

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Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the “other 99 percent”

Researchers in a variety of important economic literatures have assumed that current income variables as proxies for lifetime income variables follow the textbook errors-in-variables model. In our analysis of Social Security records containing nearly career-long earnings histories for the Health and Retirement Study sample, we find that the relationship between current and lifetime earnings departs substantially from the textbook model in ways that vary systematically over the life cycle. Our results can enable more appropriate analysis of, and correction for, errors-in-variables bias in any research that uses current earnings to proxy for lifetime earnings. (JEL D31, D91)

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Life-cycle variation in the association between current and lifetime earnings

Previous studies of recent U.S. trends in intergenerational income mobility have produced widely varying results, partly because of large sampling errors. By making more efficient use of the available information in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we generate more reliable estimates of the recent time-series variation in intergenerational mobility. Our results, which pertain to the cohorts born between 1952 and 1975, do not reveal major changes in intergenerational mobility.

/pdf/trends-in-intergenerational-income-mobility-1e64f1ttze.pdf

Trends in Intergenerational Income Mobility

Previous studies of recent US trends in intergenerational income mobility have produced widely varying results, partly because of large sampling errors By making more efficient use of the available information in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we generate more reliable estimates of the recent time-series variation in intergenerational mobility Our results, which pertain to the cohorts born between 1952 and 1975, do not reveal major changes in intergenerational mobility

본 연구는 2005-2017년 『사업체패널조사』와 한국 특허 데이터 프로젝트(KoPDP) 자료를 이용하여 기업의 노동조합이 미국특허시장 진출 전략과 장기적 혁신 역량에 미치는 영향을 분석한다. 우리나라 전체 기업별 기업 혁신 역량을 분석할 수 있도록 구축된 KoPDP 자료와 제조업체들의 노사 관계에 관한 대표적인 패널자료인 사업체패널을 최초로 결합하여 두 자료의 활용도 증진을 모색하고, 결합자료의 다양한 변수 및 개선된 종단면분석 방법론의 적용을 통해 기존 노조의 혁신 역량분석의 영역을 확대한다. 종단분석의 결과 기존 문헌과는 달리 노동조합의 유무가 기업의 미국특허 시장 진출 여부나 양적ㆍ질적 혁신 지표와는 유의한 상관관계가 없는 것으로 드러난다. 유노조기업은 미국시장 진출이 장기적 혁신역량에 미치는 영향 측면에서도 무노조기업과 유의미한 차이가 없다. 한편 노사관계가 우호적인 기업은 비우호적인 기업에 비해 노조 설립을 전후하여 혁신 지표가 개선되는 것으로 나타난다. 이러한 세부적인 이질성은 노동조합 관련 연구를 진행함에 있어 노사관계에 대한 세밀한 정보가 중요함을 시사한다. 

Chul In Lee

Papers

Trends in Intergenerational Income Mobility

Trends in Intergenerational Income Mobility

Trends in Intergenerational Income Mobility

"The Effects of Labor Union on Innovation: Patent and Workplace Panel Analysis"