Americans overestimate the intergenerational persistence in income ranks.

ABSTRACT: Recent research suggests that intergenerational income mobility has remained low and stable in America, but popular discourse routinely assumes that Americans are optimistic about mobility prospects in society. Examining these 2 seemingly contradictory observations requires a careful measurement of the public's perceptions of mobility. Unlike most previous work that measures perceptions about mobility outcomes for the overall population or certain subgroups, we propose a survey instrument that emphasizes the variation in perceived mobility prospects for hypothetical children across parent income ranks. Based on this survey instrument, we derive the perceived relationship between the income ranks of parents and children, which can then be compared against the actual rank-rank relationship r

SUBMITTER: Cheng S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6628797 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature