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Title: Evaluating Mobility Between Unmatched Quantiles: The Effects on Generational Mobility of Changes in Family Law in the United States

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2006

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Abstract: This paper addresses the intergenerational mobility question by examining the role of family structure in the transmission of educational attainment within a family using the one percent Integrated Public Use Microsample Series (IPUMS) of the decennial Census for the decades 1970 and 1990. We first introduce mobility indices and tests which examine the proximity of the transition matrix to that which would pertain in the perfectly mobile state. Unlike existing transition matrix based mobility indices, these indices and tests can be employed when the transition matrix is not square, and when the transition matrix is between states that are defined multivariately or more generally when the quantiles of the marginal states are unmatched. Using educational attainment as a proxy for permanent income for children and both educational attainment and income as proxies for parents, the tests indicate that mobility significantly increased, both in the population as a whole and within intact parent and single parent sub-populations, over the period. Within the single parent group there was much less evidence for significant mobility change for children from exogenous single parent families than for children from endogenously single parent families, which accords with theoretical predictions. There is also some evidence of convergence between intact and single parent groups, suggesting that there is a trend towards equal opportunity for children of intact and endogenously single parent families.

Url: https://www.economics.utoronto.ca/anderson/TransMechJnlEC.pdf

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Authors: Anderson, Gordon; Leo, Teng Wah

Publisher: University of Toronto

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other

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