Intergenerational mobility in educational and occupational status: evidence from the U.S.

In this paper we take up Goldberger’s (1989) suggestion to investigate intergenerational mobility using non-monetary measures. We use a newly released data set, the NELS, which allows us to investigate the contemporary intergenerational mobility in education and occupation in the United States. Our results from order logit models indicate strong evidence of intergenerational linkage in educational attainment and occupational status between parents’ and their children. We allow for family background during adolescence and find supporting evidence for the child qualityquantity trade-off. Negative effects of non-intact family are also found. Racial differences in the patterns of intergenerational mobility are also highlighted in this study.