A0212
Title: A trajectories-based approach to measuring intergenerational mobility
Authors: Seunghee Lee - Korea Development Institute (Korea, South) [presenting]
Abstract: An approach is developed to intergenerational mobility in which the trajectories of childhood and adolescent family characteristics define the conditioning objects for characterizing mobility across generations. This contrasts with standard approaches in which family influences are summarized by scalar measures such as permanent income. This perspective leads to functional regression methods that measure how parental incomes and family structures at different points in time are associated with future outcomes. Collections of trajectories that lead to relative success versus deprivation in children have been characterized and produce novel insights into the determinants of mobility versus persistence. Offspring socioeconomic success is associated with average parental income across childhood and adolescence and with tandem trajectories. When interactions are allowed between incomes at different ages, a complex pattern of local substitution and nonlocal complementarity effects is found. Applications of the tools to offspring education and occupation produce very consistent findings to those for income.
