Using harmonized household survey data, we analyze long-run social mobility in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and test recent theories of multigenerational persistence of socioeconomic status.
External Publication
Multigenerational Mobility in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany
Dynastic Inequality Compared: Multigenerational Mobility in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany
German Economic Institute (IW)
Using harmonized household survey data, we analyze long-run social mobility in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and test recent theories of multigenerational persistence of socioeconomic status.
In this country comparison setting, we find evidence against a universal law of social mobility. Our results show that the long-run persistence of socioeconomic status and the validity of a first-order Markov chain in the intergenerational transmission of human capital is countryspecific. Furthermore, we find that the direct and independent effect of grandparents_ social status on grandchildren_s status tends to vary by gender and institutional context.
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