Intergenerational income mobility in the United States: A racial-spatial account

Abstract

The study of intergenerational income mobility has witnessed more visibility in academic and public policy circles in light of the new estimates generated by Chetty and colleagues. The distribution of race-based estimates of intergenerational income mobility demonstrates strong spatial patterning, such that the success of a child's traversal to the top income quintile in the United States is spatially conditioned and dependent on locality. However, research drawing on the new estimates of intergenerational income mobility has largely taken an aspatial approach. This study is the first attempt to develop an explicitly spatial model, demonstrating that the determinants of place-based mobility vary both geographically and across racial groups. By systematically accounting for spatial autocorrelation and heterogeneity, we identify the race- and region-specific determinants of intergenerational income mobility across counties in the United States.