Rising Inequality, Declining Mobility: The Evolution of Intergenerational Mobility in Germany

Julia Baarck, Moritz Bode and Andreas Peichl

No 25103, RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin)

Abstract: This paper is the first to show that intergenerational income mobility in Germany has decreased over time. We estimate intergenerational persistence for the birth cohorts 1968-1987 and find that it rises sharply for cohorts born in the late 1970s and early 1980s, after which it stabilizes at a higher level. As a step towards understanding the mechanisms behind this increase, we show that parental income has become more important for educational outcomes of children. Moreover, we show that the increase in intergenerational persistence coincided with a surge in cross-sectional income inequality, providing novel evidence for an ``Intertemporal Great Gatsby Curve''.

Keywords: Intergenerational Mobility; Social Mobility; Income; Education; Inequality. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rfberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/25103.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Rising Inequality, Declining Mobility: The Evolution of Intergenerational Mobility in Germany (2025)
Working Paper: Rising Inequality, Declining Mobility: The Evolution of Intergenerational Mobility in Germany (2025)
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:crm:wpaper:25103

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Moritz Lubczyk () and Matthew Nibloe ().