TY  - JOUR
AU  - Grawe,Nathan D.
AU  - Mulligan,Casey B.
TI  - Economic Interpretations of Intergenerational Correlations
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8948
PY  - 2002
Y2  - May 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8948
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8948.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Casey B. Mulligan
University of Chicago
Department of Economics
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/702-9017
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: c-mulligan@uchicago.edu
AB  - Economic theory offers interpretations of intergenerational correlations that are different from the theories of other disciplines, and have important policy implications.  Our paper presents a subset of those theories, and shows how they are consistent with observed mobility patterns as they vary across countries, demographic groups, and economic status measure.  The data may suggest that the economic approach overemphasizes credit constraints, although more work is needed to further develop some of the alternative economic models.  We also show how, in the models, 'progressive' policy may reduce mobility depending on how the policy is administered and how mobility is measured.
ER  -