Has the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status Changed?

Susan Mayer and Leonard Lopoo

No 116, Working Papers from Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago

Abstract: We use data from the PSID to assess whether the effect of parental income on son's economic status has changed for cohorts born between 1949 and 1965. We find that the effect of parental income on sons' family income and wages at age thirty declined over this period. This was largely because the effect of parental income on son's years of schooling declined. The decline in the effect of parental income is not part of an overall decline in the effect of family background. The effect of parents' education on sons' economic status did not decline and may have increased and the effect of other family background characteristics hardly changed. We suggest that the decline in the effect of parental income on son's income may be due to the increase in government investment in children, especially in their educational attainment.

Keywords: economic status; parents; sons; intergenerational transmission (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/about/publication ... ers/pdf/wp_01_16.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Has the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status Changed? (2005)
Working Paper: Has the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status Changed? (2004)
Working Paper: Has the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status Changed? (2001)
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:har:wpaper:0116

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Eleanor Cartelli ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).