Spatial Influences in Upward Mobility

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Anstreicher, Garrett
• 署名单位: University of Nebraska System; University of Nebraska Lincoln
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/725706
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 149-199
• 关键词: MIGRATION; determinants; TECHNOLOGY; INEQUALITY; education; schools; choices; return; income; MODEL

摘要

This paper extends a canonical model of intergenerational human capital investment to a geographic context to study the role of migration in influencing income mobility in the United States. The main result is that migration is considerably influential in shaping the high rates of economic mobility observed among children from low-wage areas, with human capital investment behavioral responses being important to consider. Equalizing school quality across locations does more to reduce interstate inequality in income mobility than equalizing skill prices, and policies that attempt to decrease human capital flight from low-wage areas via cash transfers are unlikely to be cost-effective.