Jan Stuhler, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Paper: Intergenerational mobility and assortative mating in the US

Abstract: We study intergenerational mobility and assortative mating in the US, using an extended-kin design and longitudinally linked records from the 1900-1940 Census. By comparing many different kinship moments we can abstract from measurement error and study the “anatomy” of intergenerational transmission in terms of assortative and other margins. We find that mobility was lower than conventional estimates suggest. Particularly striking is the degree of assortative matching, with a spousal correlation in latent advantages of about 0.85. Second, we compare the anatomy of educational mobility across regions. Despite greater spatial segregation, assortative matching was only marginally stronger in the South than in other regions; instead, high kinship correlations in the South are partly attributed to schooling being a better indicator for latent advantages. Finally, we show that early 20th century US had only slightly less mobility, and moderately more sorting, than modern-day Sweden; however, schooling is a better proxy for latent socio-economic advantages in the US.