Intergenerational mobility (IGM) is at the center of debates about economic inequality and of our conception of the American Dream. If children’s economic futures are assigned by consequence of birth, then economic inequality is bound to persist and compound itself as our society is stratified into more and more disparate classes. If we’re free to move up and down the income ladder, however, then everyone has a shot at the top, and inequality represents true differences in marginal productivity. Debates over this topic are fraught with pessimism bias, virtue signaling, and cherry-picking, but in this post I attempt to cut through the ideology and get some useful insights into what intergenerational mobility is and what we can do to change it.
Intergenerational Mobility Part I
Intergenerational Mobility Part I
Intergenerational Mobility Part I
Intergenerational mobility (IGM) is at the center of debates about economic inequality and of our conception of the American Dream. If children’s economic futures are assigned by consequence of birth, then economic inequality is bound to persist and compound itself as our society is stratified into more and more disparate classes. If we’re free to move up and down the income ladder, however, then everyone has a shot at the top, and inequality represents true differences in marginal productivity. Debates over this topic are fraught with pessimism bias, virtue signaling, and cherry-picking, but in this post I attempt to cut through the ideology and get some useful insights into what intergenerational mobility is and what we can do to change it.