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Showing papers by "Gary S. Becker published in 2015"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a model of intergenerational resource transmission that emphasizes the link between cross-sectional inequality and inter-generational mobility and showed that even in a world with perfect capital markets and without differences in innate ability, wealthy parents invest more in their offspring than poorer ones.
Abstract: We develop a model of intergenerational resource transmission that emphasizes the link between cross-sectional inequality and intergenerational mobility. By drawing on first principles of human capital theory, we derive several novel results. In particular, we show that, even in a world with perfect capital markets and without differences in innate ability, wealthy parents invest, on average, more in their offspring than poorer ones. As a result, persistence of economic status is higher at the top of the income distribution than in the middle. Successive generations of the same family may even cease to regress towards the mean. Moreover, we demonstrate that government interventions intended to ameliorate inequality may in fact lower intergenerational mobility — even when they do not directly favor the rich. Lastly, we consider how mobility is affected by changes in the marketplace.

70 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a model of intergenerational resource transmission that emphasizes the link between cross-sectional inequality and inter-generational mobility and showed that even in a world with perfect capital markets and without differences in innate ability, wealthy parents invest more in their offspring than poorer ones.
Abstract: We develop a model of intergenerational resource transmission that emphasizes the link between cross-sectional inequality and intergenerational mobility. By drawing on first principles of human capital theory, we derive several novel results. In particular, we show that, even in a world with perfect capital markets and without differences in innate ability, wealthy parents invest, on average, more in their offspring than poorer ones. As a result, persistence of economic status is higher at the top of the income distribution than in the middle. Successive generations of the same family may even cease to regress towards the mean. Moreover, we demonstrate that government interventions intended to ameliorate inequality may in fact lower intergenerational mobility—even when they do not directly favor the rich. Lastly, we consider how mobility is affected by changes in the marketplace.

18 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
29 Oct 2015-Socio
TL;DR: In this paper, Harcourt et al. allons aborder principalement la theorie economique du crime and du châtiment de Gary Becker (1968), and l’analyse par Foucault du travail de Becker dans le cours du 21-mars 1979 (Foucault, 2004): 245-270).
Abstract: Bernard E. Harcourt Nous allons aborder principalement la theorie economique du crime et du châtiment de Gary Becker (1968), et l’analyse par Foucault du travail de Becker dans le cours du 21 mars 1979 (Foucault, 2004 : 245-270). Nous en profiterons pour explorer d’une maniere profonde la relation entre, d’une part, les textes de Foucault sur la penalite (de La Societe punitive, cours de 1972-1973 [Foucault, 2013] a Surveiller et punir en 1975, jusqu’a La Naissance de la biopolitique [Foucaul...

1 citations