We survey the literature on income mobility, aiming to provide an integrated discussion of mobility within and between generations. We review mobility concepts, descriptive devices, measurement methods, data sources, and recent empirical evidence.

Families, labor markets, and public policies all structure a child's opportunities and determine the extent to which adult earnings are related to family background. Cross-country comparisons and the underlying trends suggest that these drivers will most likely lower the degree of...

We examine how intergenerational income mobility responds to structural changes in a simple theoretical model of intergenerational transmission, deviating from the existing literature by explicitly analyzing the transition path between steady states. We find that mobility depends not only on...

We survey the literature on income mobility, aiming to provide an integrated discussion of mobility within- and between-generations. We review mobility concepts, descriptive devices, measurement methods, data sources, and recent empirical evidence.

This paper is prepared as a chapter for the Handbook of Income Distribution, Volume 2 (edited by A. B. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon, Elsevier-North Holland, forthcoming). Like the other chapters in the volume (and its predecessor), the aim is to provide comprehensive review of a particular area...

This paper assesses estimates of immigrant intergenerationa l mobility that are based on aggregate data sources. We show that aggregation bias strongly inflates estimates of the relationship between immigrants' educational attainment and the educational attainment of their children. Compared to...