Brown Bag seminar in Economics | Ulrika Ahrsjö

Using harmonized administrative data from Scandinavia, we find that intergenerational rank associations in income have increased uniformly across Sweden, Denmark, and Norway for cohorts born between 1951 and 1979. Splitting these trends by gender, we find that father-son mobility has been stable, while family correlations for mothers and daughters trend upward. Similar patterns appear in US survey data, albeit with slightly different timing. We argue that the decline in income mobility stems from female incomes better reflecting their inherent ability, rather than from a stronger intergenerational transmission of human capital. Finally, we show that parent-child correlations mainly increase when women gain access to education and jobs that match their skills.