The Transmission of Inequality Across Multiple Generations: Testing Recent Theories with Evidence from Germany

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Braun, Sebastian Till; Stuhler, Jan
• 署名单位: University of St Andrews; Leibniz Association; Institut fur Weltwirtschaft an der Universitat Kiel (IFW); Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12453
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 576-611
• 关键词: intergenerational mobility; occupational-mobility; educational success; Grandparents; opportunity

摘要

This article shows that across multiple generations, the persistence of occupational and educational attainment in Germany is larger than estimates from two generations suggest. We consider two recent interpretations. First, we assess Gregory Clark's hypotheses that the true rate of intergenerational persistence is higher than the observed rate, as high as 0.75, and time-invariant. Our evidence supports the first but not the other two hypotheses. Second, we test for independent effects of grandparents. We show that the coefficient on grandparent status is positive in a wide class of Markovian models and present evidence against its causal interpretation.