Rising Tides Lift Which Boats? Connecting Absolute and Relative Mobility Across Generations

• In Event: 2246 - Social Mobility and Intergenerational Relationships

Abstract

In assessing the extent to which individuals escape childhood disadvantages (or maintain childhood advantages), researchers often study relative mobility across generations (individuals' movements up or down the income rankings from their parents' position). Yet many people experience absolute income gains across generations without upward relative mobility. This paper explores the connection between relative and absolute mobility. I show how population-level mobility patterns connect to individual-level mobility experiences and expand upon prior work on absolute mobility to show how this mobility depends on not only economic growth and income inequality but also relative mobility. I propose nonparametric and parametric approaches to characterizing the joint distribution of absolute and relative mobility as experienced by individuals. Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data, I describe how mobility experiences differ across people from (dis)advantaged backgrounds, paying special attention to racial variation in the probability of experiencing upward absolute mobility without upward rank mobility.

Author

• Deirdre Bloome, University of Michigan