Name-Based Estimators of Intergenerational Mobility

Torsten Santavirta () and Jan Stuhler
Additional contact information
Torsten Santavirta: University of Helsinki

No 16725, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Recent studies use names - first and surnames - to estimate intergenerational mobility in sources that lack direct family links. While generating novel evidence on intergenerational transmission processes, it remains unclear how different estimators compare and how reliable they are. This paper evaluates the most popular name-based methods, using newly digitised records from Finland and U.S. Census data. We illustrate that their interpretation depends on sampling properties of the data, such as the overlap between the parent and child samples, which differ widely across studies. We correct for the attenuation bias from limited overlap and address other common problems encountered in applications.

Keywords: grouping estimator; names; intergenerational mobility; split-sample IV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 66 pages
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm, nep-his and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: Economic Journal, 2024, 134 (663), 2982–3016

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp16725.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Name-Based Estimators of Intergenerational Mobility (2024)
Working Paper: Name-Based Estimators of Intergenerational Mobility (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16725

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().