The mobility of intergenerational income for rural residents: The case of China

Abstract

Based on the data of China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1989 to 2015, this paper analyzes the mobility and transmission mechanism of rural residents' intergenerational income. The OLS estimation of father and son yields a value of 0.549. The results of quantile regressions show that in rural China, the intergenerational income elasticity (IGE) is higher at the high end but lower at the low end. The human capital investment represented by the schooling years of the children is indeed an important factor explaining the intergenerational income mobility in the rural, and its contribution rate is 26.6%, much higher than the contribution of occupation. Further, the decomposition results indicate that education plays a more important role both at the low end and the high end, while occupation plays a more important role at the media quantile. Key words: Rural resident, intergenerational income mobility, transmission mechanism.