Estimation of dynastic life-cycle discrete choice models

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gayle, George-Levi; Golan, Limor; Soytas, Mehmet A.
• 署名单位: Washington University (WUSTL); Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - St. Louis; Ozyegin University
• 刊物名称: QUANTITATIVE ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1759-7323
• DOI: 10.3982/QE771
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1195-1241
• 关键词: Discrete choice models; dynastic models; intergenerational mobility; nature versus nurture

摘要

This paper explores the estimation of a class of life-cycle discrete choice dynastic models. It provides a new representation of the value function for these class of models. It compare a multistage conditional choice probability (CCP) estimator based on the new value function representation with a modified version of the full solution maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) in a Monte Carlo study. The modified CCP estimator performs comparably to the MLE in a finite sample but greatly reduces the computational cost. Using the proposed estimator, we estimate a dynastic model and use the estimated model to conduct counterfactual simulations to investigate the role Nature versus Nurture in intergenerational mobility. We find that Nature accounts for 20 percent of the observed intergenerational immobility at the bottom of income distribution. That means that 80 percent of mobility at the bottom of the income distribution is explained by economic decision and economic/institutional constraints.