Is the Simple Law of Mobility Really a Law? Testing Clark's Hypothesis

Bibliographic Data

ID9705016
AuthorsKelly Vosters (0000-0001-6913-4363, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume128
Issue612
PagesF404-F421
Publication date2018-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/ecoj.12516
OpenAlexW2353003092
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited33

Recent work by Gregory Clark and co‐authors uses a new surnames approach to examine intergenerational mobility, finding much higher persistence rates than traditionally estimated. Clark proposes a model of social mobility to explain the diverging estimates, including the crucial but untested hypothesis that traditional estimates of intergenerational persistence are biased downward because they use only one measure (e.g. earnings) of underlying status. I test for evidence of this using an approach from Lubotsky and Wittenberg (2006), incorporating information from multiple measures into an estimate of intergenerational persistence with the least attenuation bias. Contrary to Clark's prediction, I do not find evidence of substantial bias in prior estimates

Earnings · Econometrics · Economics · Epistemology · Measure (data warehouse · Persistence (discontinuity · Political science · Simple (philosophy · Social mobility · Computer Science · Health disparities and outcomes · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Law · Philosophy · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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