Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error

Zachary Ward

No 29256, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: A large body of evidence finds that relative mobility in the US has declined over the past 150 years. However, long-run mobility estimates are usually based on white samples and therefore do not account for the limited opportunities available for non-white families. Moreover, historical data measure the father’s status with error, which biases estimates toward greater mobility. Using linked census data from 1850-1940, I show that accounting for race and measurement error can double estimates of intergenerational persistence. Updated estimates imply that there is greater equality of opportunity today than in the past, mostly because opportunity was never that equal.

JEL-codes: J62 N31 N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-isf and nep-lab
Note: DAE
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published as Zachary Ward, 2023. "Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error," American Economic Review, vol 113(12), pages 3213-3248.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w29256.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error (2023)
Working Paper: Intergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement Error (2019)
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:nbr:nberwo:29256

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w29256

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().