On the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lee, Sang Yoon (Tim); Seshadri, Ananth
• 署名单位: University of London; Queen Mary University London; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/700765
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 855-921
• 关键词: life-cycle; transfers; income; earnings; Heterogeneity; TECHNOLOGY; retirement; WEALTH; MODEL

摘要

We present a model in which human capital investments occur over the life cycle and across generations, a la Becker and Tomes. The human capital technology features multiple stages of childhood investments, college, and life cycle accumulation. The model can explain a wide range of intergenerational relationships while remaining empirically consistent with cross-sectional inequality. Much of the latter is determined by early investments in children, so that borrowing constraints faced by young parents are important for understanding the persistence of economic status across generations. Education subsidies, especially early on, can significantly reduce the intergenerational persistence of economic status.