OVERVIEW OF MAJOR THEMES
Motivating questions
What are the different statistics used to measure intergenerational income mobility, what do they tell us about the transmission of incomes across generations, and what are the challenges in accurately estimating them?
This course is certainly about the challenges measurement and data pose to accurately describing intergenerational income dynamics, both within and across countries. Knowledge in this field advances significantly with the development of better data and statistical methods, but it also advances in tandem with theory, and with heightened public policy interest.
What are the drivers of intergenerational income mobility, and how do they allow us to make sense of both variations over time within a country, as well as variations across countries? How can we identify causal forces, and how do they inform public policy?
Download the Lecture 2 slides.
Main readings
Corak, Miles. 2013. “Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 27 (3): 79–102.
Jäntti, Markus, and Stephen P. Jenkins. 2015. “Chapter 10 – Income Mobility.” In Handbook of Income Distribution, edited by Anthony B. Atkinson and François Bourguignon, 2:807–935. Elsevier.
Economics for public policy 