Effects of Family and Community Background on Men's Economic Status

Mary Corcoran, Roger H. Gordon, Deborah Laren, Gary Solon

NBER Working Paper No. 2896
Issued in March 1989
NBER Program(s):   LS

This study uses intergenerational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to investigate the effects of family and community background on men's economic status. It is distinguished from most previous studies by its emphasis on community influences and on influences from poverty and welfare use. Also, our parental characteristics data are more comprehensive and accurate than those of many earlier studies. We find substantial disadvantages in economic status for black men, men from lower-income families, and men from more welfare-dependent families or communities. Otherwise, we do not find much evidence of community influences. This, however, might be due to the grossness of the geographic detail at which our community variables are measured.

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Published: American Economic Review, Vol. 80, No. 2, pp. 362-66, May 1990.

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