EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Human Capital, Heterogeneity and Estimated Degrees of Intergenerational Mobility

Song Han and Casey Mulligan

Economic Journal, 2001, vol. 111, issue 470, 207-43

Abstract: We study the parental investment model of intergenerational mobility, where heterogeneity in "innate" earnings ability and parents' altruism rate is explicitly modelled. We show that heterogeneity increases the difficulty of detecting the existence of borrowing constrained families. Conversely, the presence of heterogeneity means that economic and linear statistical models of inheritance generate similar intergenerational data on consumption and earnings. We also suggest that nay cross-country differences in intergenerational earnings mobility are more readily interpreted according to the heterogeneity of inherited ability, rather than optimal family responses to country-specific institutions for accumulating human capital.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (56)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: Human Capital, Heterogeneity, and Estimated Degrees of Intergenerational Mobility (2000) Downloads
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:ecj:econjl:v:111:y:2001:i:470:p:207-43

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... al.asp?ref=0013-0133

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Journal is currently edited by Martin Cripps, Steve Machin, Woulter den Haan, Andrea Galeotti, Rachel Griffith and Frederic Vermeulen

More articles in Economic Journal from Royal Economic Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing () and Christopher F. Baum ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-31
Handle: RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:111:y:2001:i:470:p:207-43