Traditional Role Patterns, Family Background, and Intergenerational Income Mobility – Germany and the United States compared

Using SOEP-PSID data we analyze the impact of human capital and family background characteristics on intergenerational income mobility for two age cohorts in Germany and the United States. The results reveal a higher intergenerational persistence of economic status and a more pronounced influence of family background characteristics on income mobility patterns in the United States. The intergenerational transition matrices corroborate these results, indicating that much of the intergenerational income immobility is due to from what occurs in the tails of the income distribution. The results do not confirm the traditional social role patterns in Germany and a higher social mobility of the American society.